by Hannah from India.
Since 1966, there is a city partnership between the cities of Lünen and Salford in Great Britain. Lünen nowadays is a part of the Evangelischer Kirchenkreis Dortmund (Church of Dortmund). Since the 1980s, there is beside the city partnership also a lively church partnership between both partners. Our This strong church partnership has been determined to exchange common experiences about life in church and society. Ever since 1984, a week-long annual delegation visits take place in Lünen and Salford.
This year an energetic group of adults from Salford visited us at The Volunteers House, I was asked to give a small presentation and we had planned small activities for the group. But what happened later that afternoon was just Mind Blowing!
A sense of positive vibe entered the house as soon as the guests from England got in one by one. After we all sat down in our living room, I started presenting and sharing my experiences of living in a transcultural house. The guests were awestruck by the project and its transcultural outcome it has generated. They were eager to know all our little experiences about our daily life, and asked us multiple questions individually, and we had the feeling they were overjoyed by our answers. The original schedule was planned for one hour, but the session had gotten so interesting and no one realized that two and half hours had already passed by.
When I finally started to explain about our Blog (yes, this one here), every single one of them took out their cell phones immediately and found our website. They were so enlightened they even read aloud a passage about Transculturality from our Blog. I really felt proud in that moment. As the session finally came to an end, a beautiful lady walked towards us and said „After hearing about this project- I still believe there is hope for the world“. We were deeply moved. Our beautiful day ended with a house tour and joyful hearts.
P.S.: A small message to our partners in Salford, who probably will read this blog: you are all warmly welcome to visit us again in the volunteershaus, next time. But then we would ask you to help us with our big garden, deal?
Hi Hannah, I was one of those „energetic adults“ from Salford! I’m the guy in the yellow jacket on the right-hand side of your photo. I was very impressed by you, your colleagues and the project as a whole – and as a result I’m trying to do what I can to get someone from Salford/Manchester to spend a year in Volunteers‘ House. (No promises yet, I’m afraid.) I knew what meeting you meant to us, but until I read your blog I didn’t know what meeting us meant to you. I’m so glad you found us so encouraging!