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Trinity Presbyterian Church
A year in the little Church with the big Heart
In only four days my one-year volunteer service with action reconciliation service for peace comes to an end. As I look back on a time full of unique experiences, excitement and anxiety. My return to Germany doesn’t only imply excitement to see my family and Friends and to challenge new duties and responsibilities. After the last twelve month I feel like a part of the community and that makes it hard for me to leave the place I fell in love with and all new friends, which became part of my life.
When I graduated from high school one year ago I decided to do a one-year volunteer service with the German organization Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (ARSP). Being convinced that only we as young succession of our cruel and unforgettable history can accomplish a peaceful future by acknowledging our history and by working with those who were affected by our predecessors.
After my graduation I felt a little bit edgy about where I am going and what kind of work I will do in the upcoming year with ARSP. I wanted to work in a social project in the first place and I applied to different organisations and I finally received the notice that I am going to work in a little poor church in New York, which was my first choice. After that letter I worked a couple of weeks as a preparation for my time in America in a consultation centre for Homeless in my Hometown in Germany, because I knew I was going to work with homeless people. I went to an international youth meeting at the Dachau concentration camp memorial site and I met people from twenty-five countries to speak about the third Reich and its consequences.
Here I was in September 2006 enthusiastically ready to leave my Home for one year. After a week of seminary near Berlin with all 200 ARSP volunteers for the thirteen involved countries of which 24 volunteers formed the next ARSP generation to work in the USA. We had a five-day seminar where we were introduced to the ARSP mission in the US and we were given an orientation as well as an overview of American history and society in general. Each one of us also spent a weekend with a host family in and around Philadelphia. I spent my time with a wonderful Jewish family who warmly welcomed me to their house. The Father of the family was a very active rabbi in the Philadelphia environmental organisation and in his community as well therefore I learned a lot about local politics and how Jewish living is like in America. He took me to a night service at a local synagogue with a very interesting discussion about us foreign policy and I have been pleased to visit my first bat mitzvah.
