"Er ist wahrhaftig auferstanden!" or, "Nach Wien!"

In about 2 hours, I will be boarding a train that will take me to Frankfurt, where I will board a plane that will carry me through the atmosphere to Vienna!

Needless to say, I am rather begeistert. Obviously though, since I am not there yet, I have very little actual writing to do as of yet. So, forward to yesterday!

"Er ist auferstanden!" "Er ist wahrhaftig auferstanden!"
He is Risen! He ist Risen indeed!

Easter morning, I was woken up by a banging on my door. It was 6:35 am; 5 minutes after our Sunrise service was supposed to start. I threw jeans over the plaid sleepwear, and booked it out the door.

It was snowing! The five of us--Nicole, Ali, Kelsey, Alex, and I--huddled together as we read the Crucifixion from Mark. Then we sang When I survey the wondrous cross. Then we read the Resurrection account from Luke, and sang Christ the Lord is Risen Today! We prayed, and then went inside to make pancakes.

at 9am, we headed across town to Christus-Treff. We wanted to get there early because we wanted to make sure we got seats, since it was Easter Sunday and we weren't sure how many people would be there. Now I want to go early every Sunday, because we were able to help set things up, which was really neat. I felt more connected than I have, and I think it would be a good way to get to know people there in a less intimidating atmosphere.

Gottesdienst was beautiful. Once everyone came in, the blinds were pulled over the windows, and the lights were turned off, except for a spotlight shining on a small, stone tomb that had been built on the stage. The pastor was not up front, but rather back behind, out of sight. He began to read (in German) "Early, on the first day of the week..." and continued to the part where the angel says, "Er ist nicht mehr hier, denn er ist auferstanden, wie er gesagt hat!" I got chills just hearing that. Then a candle was lit in the tomb, and the candles which we had received coming in were lit as the fire from the tomb was passed along the rows of chairs. Then we sang some beautiful German Easter hymns a cappella. It was so haunting, and beautiful, sitting in the candle light, singing medieval-sounding German hymns. It was amazing.

There was a short, 15 minutes message, which was equally incredible for its stark, raw truth: Jesus is alive, he has conquered death, he is still here, for he has risen! After that, we took communion in the Risen Lord, and we dispersed.

I was so incredibly blessed this Easter, and I am in awe of God's love. Last week was the hardest week I've had yet, missing home and everything included in that word, and all of the Easter traditions I'm used to. Being able to continue a tradition in our little sunrise service (ok, so it ended up being a snow-rise, but that's ok) was so wonderful, and then being blessed beyond belief by new traditions at Christus-Treff...We really do serve a risen Lord, who is not only risen at home, among people we know, and in traditions we are familiar with, he is also risen in a foreign land, in a language that is strange to my tongue, in traditions and people that are foreign to me.

Er ist wahrhaftig und ewig auferstanden!

begeistert - excited
Gottesdienst - Gottes: God's, Dienst: service
"Er ist nicht mehr hier, denn er ist auferstanden, wie er gesagt hat!" - "he is not here, for he is risen, just as he said!"
ewig - eternal(ly)