This week is one in which Berlin students find themselves with high stress levels. Textbooks and notebooks full of notes from the past few months in front of them, trying to decode what it is they wrote down in October that will be on their upcoming tests. Oh, test week!Our STINT team, partially remembering from our experiences as students that this week is one where you can between wanting to cry thinking about all you need to do and the elation of actually remembering a concept for your test, decided to serve the students.
So, we gathered together this morning to, through the help of some assembly line action, put together 300 studying care packages. Filled with goodies like Haribo gummi bears, tea, coffee, etc, we set out to hand them out to unsuspecting Berlin students.
How skeptical of free things we as humans are. Can someone really give something with no strings attached? Can we really serve people without wanting something in return? How many students turned down free snacks. It was fun to be there and while handing out the packages observe the reactions of German students. The skeptical "Why are you really doing this? to "Wow, this is so generous!" with a smile breaking across their face. It was fun to see stressed out students suddenly not be able to wipe a smile off their face. To see them do the double take as we assured them that we were truly giving them a free gift.
I love that I get to be here to serve the students of Berlin. That some days they get to experience a free gift, a physical gift. Other days we talk to students and enter into spiritual conversations, asking them questions and sharing with them how they can have the gift of life. What a gift!
