Anyone who travels a lot by plane or train gets accustomed to the routine announcements made by flight attendants or train personnel. More than once I have experienced a new flight attendant who had to read the safety instructions from a prepared text prior to takeoff and landing. And there are flight attendants who have made those announcements so many times that they know the text by heart. (more…)

Christians have been waiting for centuries for the promised return of Jesus Christ. And starting with the first generation of Christians ("we who are alive and remain") probably each generation since has hoped for Christ to return in their lifetime. And up to today that hope remains unfulfilled. (more…)

The "birthday boy" buys the drinks for his friends, at least that is often what happens in Germany. In the United States the tradition was quite different. The "birthday boy" was the center of attention, receiving gifts from family and friends, and sometimes even telling people in advance what he wanted for his birthday. (And that might explain the earlier viewpoint of the church on the subject of birthdays, with the viewpoint basically being based on the American tradition.) (more…)

In 1985 we took a teenager from the German church as our guest on our home leave to the USA along, as we were granted home leave back then once every three years. The young man was from a rural area in northern Germany, and on his trip with us he experienced cable TV for the first time, which at that time had more than 50 channels. After watching TV a couple of hours, his comment was: "Back home we only have 3 channels with a lot of nonsense. You have more than 50 channels with a lot of nonsense!" (more…)

My mother told me that of her 8 children I and my oldest brother were the ones who gave her the most grief (I was the 5th of her children). She told me once: "It's good that there is only one copy of you." She probably would have identified with a message on a public church message board in America: "Don't try to make someone else in your own image, because you are unique and the other person is, too." (more…)