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Baschdi.
He's in his 7th semester studying english and german to become a teacher and has been a part of Unterwegs longer than I have been here. He knows more about pop culture, crocheting and cats than I could ever dream to know. A couple of weeks ago my team leader asked him to write about his experience and views of Unterwegs and while reading it, I just couldn't help but smile and want to share it with you guys, because he gets it.
He is Unterwegs.
"I met Beth within in my first few weeks as a university student at English Stammtisch where she invited me to Thanksgiving. Free food? – Count me in! Due to another invite, I became a constant visitor of Cafe English (not only because the lecturers of the English Department forced us to go) and eventually I found myself being a part of unterwegs. I usually say "I came for free food and stayed for the people." But all jokes aside, thanks to unterwegs it was easy finding a new home in Tübingen and it was great to see that random events and former strangers can become such an important part of your life.
I stayed because of a chain reaction: The team members are nice and welcoming. As a result the students also become nice and welcoming and suddenly you yourself are nice and welcoming. There you find yourself, jumping up and down while meeting new people and showing them proudly the community you just became part of.
Unterwegs is also a place where anybody can invest more of themselves. For example: you can either play in the band or help in the kitchen (unless you are temporarily banned from the kitchen because your cooking was way too awesome). Or, you can start something totally new like a movie group, crochet party---or you name it! Just get involved.
On a very superficial level I’d recommend Unterwegs to others because of the fun, cool people and free food. But there is so much more. I friend of mine moved far away for her studies and although she puts on an act every time I call her, I know that she isn’t feeling all that well because she struggled to make new friends and now she seems totally isolated and alone. I recently caught myself thinking „If only she had an unterwegs“ (might sound cheesy, but hey it’s the truth). There are probably tons of other young students having similar problems fighting with loneliness and their inner demons. These people desperately need a community and God’s love. Especially in Germany many people are rather skeptical towards religion. Let me give you an example: My mom even called some Tübingen official to make sure that unterwegs isn’t a cult. And just slapping the bible into their faces would not alter their opinions for the better. At unterwegs people see the Christian faith put into action and this actually affects people. People actually care and love you and are not only interested in "saving the highest number of souls possible." Sure, not everyone will become a Christian eventually, but even if they just think something along the lines of "Hey a church isn’t the worst place to go visit." "So Christians are actually that crazy" or "Maybe this Jesus talk isn’t all that nonsense after all" then I think that is a great achievement."
-Baschdi
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