After a good week in Columbia, we travelled to New Jersey to visit our former neighbors Sam and Sarah with their kids. Since the distance is quite far we have stayed in Pennsylvania for one night and visited the Amish. The Amish are a group of German emigrants who still live the same way as they did in the 18th Century. They also still speak a German dialect, the Pennsylvania Dutch, which is very similar to our Swabian. It is really interesting and also nice to see the Amish still live a quiet life in the otherwise quite hectic America. In New Jersey we spoke at the youth group of a Chinese church led by our former neighbor Sam and shared about our lives. We had many good encounters and some of the participants were even Taiwanese. During our time in New Jersey, we also had the opportunity to visit Liberty Corner mission, the American cooperation partner of Marburger Mission. In Liberty Corner, there is still a real “motherhouse” as in Germany and it was very nice to get to know the sisters there (in a motherhouse live deaconesses, women who decided to give their life completely into ministry for Christ and therefore do not marry). Along with Sam and Sarah, we also visited Dennis, a friend who also studied in Columbia and now lives in New York City. Dennis is now a pastor in Chinatown, where he also showed us around. It’s great to have people who can also show ‘hidden’ corners.
We are truly grateful for the wonderful two weeks we could spend in the US. It’s great to know so many people and to be associated with them. Thanks also to Katie & Joe and Sarah & Sam for their hospitality!
There are more pictures of our time in the USA in our photo album USA 2013.