A letter from Ryan and Alethia White serving in Germany
Fall 2014 - Language and Conversation
Greetings from Berlin, where the light is lingering less and the leaves are beginning to adorn themselves in cozy colors that brighten the graying skies. Ariella spends her days finding “treasures”: yellow leaves, bright orange berries, seeds, bugs, dried grasses. A reminder that despite the promise that a dark winter is coming, the changes we experience along the way are indeed treasures.
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Ariella sharing a snack and a view of Berlin with two boys from church.
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A picnic and time of fellowship with members of the church community.
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A Persian potluck in the church garden before worship.
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Delicious (khoshmazeh) Persian dish of Abgooshat. From top left clockwise, an empty bowl of Abgooshat, pickled garlic, bowl of Abgooshat (torn bread chunks soaking in chicken broth topped with relish), a piece of bread, (center) greens and radishes eaten as accompaniment.
We hope that each of you are well and we thank you for your continued conversations, prayers, and stories of where life is leading. Since we last wrote we have spent much of our time walking. We walk quite a distance from the bus through a peaceful neighborhood to our Farsi tutor’s house a few times a week. She has been a great help to us and we enjoy our time with her, drinking hot cups of tea and working through language, and even sharing American apple desserts we’ve made with apples from the tree in her backyard.
Recently we were invited to walk after church with a small group of congregants from one metro stop to the next just to spend extra time together after the service before going our separate ways. This may sound simple, but the invitation to join them in walking was significant for us as we were able to use more language together and in doing so develop those relationships just a little bit more. It has been much easier (though still not easy) to pick up German as we are surrounded by it each day and, in the end, it is closer to English, compared to Farsi. However, we are working hard at Farsi these days and feel excited when the door to this beautiful and lyrical language opens a little further. Each week we make a little bit of progress and these tiny victories are cheered on by those in the Iranian church community even as our mistakes provide amusement.
Stretching out the time together to just one extra metro stop doesn’t sound like much, but we’ve learned that this group values its time together and walks slowly, giving new sense to the word “stroll.” It has taken us some practice and patience to not dash to the end destination, to not rush across a street on a green light unless the group is all there and ready to cross together, to not jump on a train just because it’s there and waiting unless our group is also all there and ready to go together. Together matters more than time, and that is refreshing if not also a little frustrating for our time-oriented culture. Walking between metro stations can take 20 minutes or more, rather than 10. It is time well spent.
Another highlight as summer ended and fall began was a picnic with the church in a lush park overlooking Berlin. In a flat city, hills are a rarity and are mostly made from war rubble. This park offered a broad view over the city and the picnic offered us some surprises as it was the first real opportunity we had to talk with some people from church, and new relationships were fostered. At that point we could try a little more Farsi with some success and as we showed we were trying, others we previously hadn’t been able to talk with offered us a few words in English or German as a way of acknowledging our efforts in their language and showing their willingness to meet us along the way. It’s become a game to compare words in three languages and in doing so we have gained some new teachers and friends in the church community. Specifically, Alethia made friends with a woman who had previously made it clear she was waiting for us to learn Farsi, but it turns out she knows a little German and a little English. Ryan played soccer (football) with some of the men and high school boys and enjoyed sharing words along the way.
As a result of all this walking and talking, learning and stumbling, we are feeling more a part of this community. Alethia recently took one woman up on her offer of a haircut. She was a hairdresser in Iran for a number of years and during the haircut she said she could understand some words in German and in English. Alethia offered that she could understand a bit in Farsi as well, and so they proceeded to have a conversation for the first time together, using words from each language as needed and learning a bit more about each other.
At a recent church fellowship meal Ryan was able to enjoy a new Iranian dish while learning from the community members words for many food items. In struggling to converse in Farsi, he was also met with compliments that our Farsi is very good. While these compliments may not accurately reflect our ability with the language, they do reflect an appreciation from the community for our willingness to learn their language and culture.
Another aspect of walking, besides the physical, is accompanying each other, and we have experienced this as we have celebrated with some families from church who were recently granted permission to stay in Germany. We have also experienced disappointment together as some others have received notices that they must leave the country. We don’t yet know all their stories, but each person has experienced some heaviness in their journey to Germany, and some are continuing to struggle with that heaviness. Please join our community here in prayer: thankfulness for those families who have the weight of immigration lifted and are allowed to stay, and intercession for those who are dealing with depression, uncertainty, and fearfulness as their status is not yet resolved or they have been told they must leave the country. Prayer allows us all to walk together, near and far, through joy and fear.
We also ask for continued prayer for:
- Language learning, especially Farsi
- Balancing work and family time as we become more involved during the week
- Finding a good kindergarten for Ariella for next year (Berlin is crowded and spaces are limited)
- Relationships with the Iranian community
Financial support for our work in Berlin. Thank you to those who have given this year! If you are able to walk with us through financial support please consider giving in the remainder of the year.
With wishes for fruitful walking,
Ryan, Alethia, and Ariella
The 2014 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 312
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