Mercedes-Benz Museum

Today we went to the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart. It was a wonderful experience as a designer. Everything, from the Architecture of the building and the design of the cars to the signage system and information graphics were awesome.

The building was completed just 3 years ago in 2006. It was designed by UN Studio based in Amsterdam. “The building’s height and “double helix” interior were designed to maximise space, providing 16,500 square metres of exhibition space on a footprint of just 4,800 square metres. The museum contains more than 160 vehicles, some dating back to the very earliest days of the motor engine.” (from Wikipedia)

After walking into the copious lobby of the museum you take an elevator to the top and meander down the six levels of the double helix, starting with the very first car that received a patent all the way to the latest 2009 model. Each visitor to the museum receives an audio guide that connects via bluetooth sound clips throughout the museum. On the long spiral ramps that connect the levels they put the historical period of the vehicles in context of world history. It was very interesting to look at the history of the 20th century through the eyes of auto makers.







This is the first patented automobile in the history of the world.



One of my favorites.





Mercedes was cool, even in the 80s.



A 2009 model.











They had examples of their advertising throughout the years as well.





Big type on the wall. YES!




A full wall, about 100 feet long, of fiber optic cables.





Just another example of their very cool signage.

Metzingen

For the last three days we have been at a church in Metzingen, Germany, a small town near Stuttgart. Metzingen is known for its outlet stores. Hugo Boss built an outlet store here several years ago and many more clothing companies followed suit. It the number one shopping destination in all of Germany. Somebody from the church told me that people come from France and England to shop here.

The church we are ministering at is downtown in the middle of all of these outlets. A friend of the church owned the land and gave it to the church in his will. As part of the will he included his wishes that the church never be sold. Now the church is prime real estate and right in the middle of all the shopping centers. Recently, they were able to sell a very small piece of land to Hugo Boss and were able to fund a new front to their church building.

The location of the church makes an interesting juxtaposition. It is really a meeting of two religions: Materialism and Christianity. They have many similarities. Both have a message and proclaim that message. Both claim to satisfy and people turn to both for satisfaction. But we know that only Christ can truly satisfy. That is our message and we want to proclaim it. We hope we can help this church be a light in this community.

This was also our first opportunity to stay in host homes. For many it was the first time with this experience. I’m sure there was some anxiety. Even if you know the drill and know there is nothing to really be very nervous about, there are still those few minutes of apprehension when your imagination is more vivid than usual, conjuring up images of all the things you could do wrong and quickly combining them into the worst possible scenario. You know that it will be fine, but you still hope that you do not horrendously violate a cultural norm.

The family I stayed with were wonderful hosts. They are Romanian Germans and moved back to Germany in the early 90s after communism fell. It was very interesting to talk to someone that had grown up in a communist country. The husband said that he has very fond memories of growing up in Romania. He was 13 when they moved back. He said that when he got to Germany he felt like he had an advantage in school because the education was better in Romania. That surprised me. I think that as Americans, after the “Cold War” and our struggle against communism for decades, we have the perception that anyone growing up in a communist country must be miserable. That really isn’t the case. Simon said that he enjoyed his childhood, but that he wasn’t old enough to realize his lack of freedom. Freedom becomes more important to you as you get older he said. I really enjoy listening to these personal histories in the places I stay. It opens my mind to new perspectives that I have never thought about before.

Farewell, beautiful Ebnat Kappel

The bad thing about going to these wondeful places and making wonderful friends is that eventually, and a much too short eventually, you have to say goodbye.

We had such a nice time and the people at the Ark are incredible hosts.

We had a wonderful last morning with them. Greg gave us a challenge for our ministry for the rest have the summer. Having traveled on the team for 15 summers, he has a pretty good idea of what we need to hear.



It was so good to see Greg and Lily again. It has been neat to see and hear how the Lord has used their experience on the team to call them to this mission field. Their joy in the Lord's work was a great encouragement and also a challenge to me this week. Thankfully this is not the last goodbye for them this summer they will be meeting us a few more times throughout our travels in Germany and Switzerland.




"Jesus is the Victor!"

And now we are off to Germany.

Zwingli House

After our last service at the Ark on monday morning we took a short trip to visit the birthplace of Ulrich Zwingli, the Swiss reformer.

Services at Ebnat Kappel

The Lord has really blessed our services at Ebnat Kappel. We had 5 serves in 4 days. Our service on monday morning was special because it was “Pfingsten” (Pentacost) which is 50 days after Easter. It is a national holiday in Germany in Switzerland. Some people get up to two weeks vacation. We do not celebrate this event in America so it was special for us to participate in this christian holiday.

The attendance at the Ark was much better than last year. Greg and Lily have done a great job in publicizing the weekend and inviting friends. One lady that works at the Ark told one of our team members that in all the years that the team has come (since 1996) that these were the largest numbers she can remember. I think that Greg and Lily were very encouraged and we hope this will give them many contacts to follow up on in the coming months.

The Lord has given us a wonderful first stop and a great start to the summer.