As an EVS Volunteer for Atlantic Bridge, I am used to the term “Building Bridges” – but how can this idea come alive? During a weekend in Dresden I experienced it with a group of 20 people from all over the world.
A team of youth leaders from the Mennonite church Dresden and Ian and me (volunteers of Atlantic Bridge) organised a youth event for Czechs and Germans! Moreover, two Chinese and one Japanese joined us; they are studying at the University in Dresden! We called it “The Peace Weekend“.
On Friday evening I arrived with four Czech youth. The German youth group already had prepared a great meal for us and during dinner we had some time to get to know each other. For the evening we prepared games with the theme of *”Peace between cultures“.* Next, we used riday and Saturday evening for worship songs and hearing a small devotion about the day.
The topic for Saturday was *”Peace between God and humans“* . We started the day with the story of Brother Andrew, a Dutch man, smuggling bibles throughout communist europe! – but we didn’t just hear the story, we also made it come alive, because the leaders from Dresden prepared a really cool city game in the Old Town of Dresden!! The idea behind it was that we had to smuggle bibles in small groups from one historical place to the other. On our phones we got questions and hints about where the next place would be!! This game was a big success, also because of the wonderful weather God gave us! 🙂
In the evening we cooked a traditional Czech meal: Svičkova!
On Sunday we had our chance to present some pictures in the Sunday service of the Mennonite church.
All together it was a successful weekend, even though the language difference was a barrier sometimes. As leaders we learned about leading intercultural groups and also the youth gave a good feedback for the weekend. A Czech said :
I wish I can be on more events like this. It was super exciting and encouraging.
