Talk about an early morning. I slept for about 4 hours last night and then jumped out of bed at 3 this morning to head back to Tegel airport and make my way back to the states. I was greeted in the lobby of the airport by a group from the African delegation and a couple of other Americans. We all loaded up into vans and headed off to the airport.
Once we got to the airport pretty much everything was closed. We actually had to figure out where to go in order to check things in. Turns out in Berlin you go straight to the gate and they take care of everything there. You even go through security right at the gate. It’s actually pretty interesting.
I took a quick little jaunt over to Zurich where I had to go through customs, and then check in for my flight back to Philadelphia. It’s a long flight, 9 hours about and I am currently writing this in the middle of it. Turns out my passport says I went to Frankfurt and Zurich, but never Berlin. Hmmmmmm
A great part of my morning time was that I got to travel with a few people I had not met from Delaware. I had some good conversations about ministry, about the conference, about our time in Berlin and we got to help each other through the airport. I also think we may have another couple people coming to Relevance X this yearJ
I figured today was a good day for some final thoughts on the conference. I feel very blessed to be able to participate in a global event like this. Where youth and young adults come together in order for their collective voice to be heard by the rest of the church. I feel especially blessed because so few people get to experience something like this once and I now have experienced something like this twice. What an amazing feeling to be able to participate in and watch how a group of young people can come together and make a difference in the world.
While we vary in our beliefs, while we are divided over many issues, this week we were able to come together, to be the body Christ. To be one world, one church, one people. It does not matter which side of the debate that you are on. It does not matter if you and I believe the same things. It does not matter the color of our skin, the country of our origin, the background that we have. What matters is that we are one in Christ. What matters is that we seek to live with one another, to understand one another, and to share the love that we know in Christ with others.
It gives me hope that the church can overcome differences, can disagree and can still be one. Our young people of the UMC came together, in a city that had once been divided, so that we could say to the world, we are indeed one church. Thanks be to God.
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