hoffy birthday

the next place we went was hof. we'd been there before, but had only eaten something and then driven on. the french couple had the impression, however, that we werent finished there, so we went back to see what God had in store for us. the twins decided to show us an underground art gallery, so we went in (the door was open, but it was already late). it was obviously between installations, and there was a band practicing in one of the rooms. they found it amuzing that thirty people showed up at a gallery with no open exhibits, and laughingly asked, "hey, you guys got a drummer, a mic, and amt?' and we were like, "oh sure.. no prob, we'll go get them." at first they thought we were joking.. but we did have all of it. so we stayed and helped them in the forming of their new band.

eventually they found out why we were in hof, and decided that we could sleep in the gallery if we wanted. when they found out the next day was my bday, they even took off and organized drinks and a cake! (the supermarktets in germany close at 8, so they had to do a little work to get stuff!) so i celebrated with these total strangers.


the first conversation i had started with the sentence, "my exgirlfriend is a christian, and i really did everything i could to become one too... i even went to Alpha course and church.. but i just cant believe it all." yup.. that was fun. we talked to him about faith being a gift, and that he shouldnt pressure himself so much, but rather just be open for God to work on his heart, and we offered to pray with him. there were alot of cool conversations in hof.. once again we had been taken in by alternative people our age who didnt have anything to do with God.

the next day i went into town with patrick to try to distract myself from the fact that tommy (a very close friend) had left convoy. he bought me a super nice mousse filled chocolate bar for my birthday, but then disappeared.. i was looking around for him and spotted a homeless guy who looked sympathetic, so i went over in typical cate-style, and asked if i could sit with him and wait. i shared my chocolate with him, which got a cool conversation started. turns out he is also a christian. he had been living on the streets for nine years, since his wife left him, but doesnt take drugs. he was excited that we had come to hof to talk to people about God.

that night obadja played another concert there in the art gallery. one of the guys from plauen heard about it, and rode his bike two hours through the mountains to be there with us! the theater piece that went with the concert is pretty crass. children and mom might not want to look at the pictures:

in the dark auditorium, lit only by flashlights, two demonlike dancers crept up on the lead singer and ripped a pigs heart out of a bag over his chest, bit, tore, and stuck at it with knives. he began to scream that he is lonely, that no one can help him, and so on.. then he yells "JESUS" and another stands up, pushes back the demons, and takes a second pigs heart and places it in his bag. at that point he starts a praise song.