Walking and Parks and Stuff

Friday started with a tour of the area of Berlin where the church and KIBA are located. With our walking shoes on, water bottles filled and babies in strollers, we headed out to discover what Pankow had to offer. During the whole trip Evie has been in a great mood* and this morning was no exception. She was shaking with excitement at the prospect of a morning walk.

Of course, walks are always more fun when your big brother is around to entertain you.

Our tour started right outside our apartment building.

See those flower boxes on the balcony? That's our apartment. The bay to the left is where I'm sitting right now typing this entry. Because of all of the previous destruction in East Berlin, much of it has been rebuilt and it is beautiful.

Alright, I'll admit that the next place on our tour was not this building. In fact, most of the group didn't even stop to look at this building so I can't tell you what it is. BUT it says "Berlin-Pankow" on it so I thought it would be good to show.

Moving right along on our tour...This actually was the first real stop. The Rathaus is the city hall. There happened to be a wedding the day we walked by and we learned that all weddings must take place in the Rathaus, regardless of whether or not there is an additional religious ceremony.

During the time that East Berlin was under communist rule, the sign directly above the door was covered up. When the building was recovered, the sign, reading Gott mit uns, or "God with us," was revealed.

Our next stop was the state church. Officially, the state religion is Lutheran. Despite the size of the building, it is common to see only 20 or 30 people in church on a Sunday morning. This is because many people believe that paying church tax - an automatic 10% deduction for Berliners registered with the state as Christians - is their means of salvation. Lucky for them, there's better news. Now we just need the opportunity to share it!

Small markets and shops are abundant in Pankow. This is the Obstmann fruit stand. Well, it used to be a stand, now it's a store. And it's right down the street from where previous KIBAs were held. The Turkish man who owns the store provided low cost fruit during the week of KIBA as a way to support the work that was going on. God is so creative in the way He provides, isn't He?

As we walked on to other various stops {the school where the church meets - pictures of that later - the church office, etc.} we passed the Milchmann, which is presumably an ice cream shop judging by the enormous ice cream cone out front. The boys just couldn't resist giving it a big hug {we wouldn't let them take a lick}.

The last stop of our tour was a park where we would meet Manu and her daughter Heidi for some play time. It was so neat to see the kids begin playing despite not being able to understand each other's language.

By this point, Evie was glad to have an opportunity to get out of the stroller and play a little bit.

So was Mercy.

The area around the park was wooded, which Jack really enjoyed exploring.

After a short break back at the apartment, and an interesting trip to the grocery store, we walked across the street to Burgerpark where we met some of the members of the church and joined them for a birthday party.

The park has a small petting zoo so Heidi took the boys over to look at the goats.

When we finished eating, Evie was happy to have some freedom to walk around. And happy to have the hand of her big brother to hold.

While walking around, she caught sight of the large fountain in the park...

and then there was no stopping her. She had her eyes glued on that fountain and she was determined to get to it.

Apparently all the effort was worth it because the fountain drew a crowd.

Sam attempted to go in, but the water was too cold for him to go through with it.

Jack dipped his feet, but that was as far as he got.

After a long day, full of parks and walking and meeting and greeting, we headed home for bedtime and preparations for the next day.

*Thank you, thank you, thank you to those of you praying specifically for easy adjustment for the babies! Your prayers have been answered.