Louis Purba will stay in the International Volunteershouse from April 2020 to March 2021. With this text, she is introducing herself:

By Louis from Indonesia,

Hello! My name is Louis Sri Ananda Purba, from Indonesia. I am 22 years old. In November 2019, I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture. My hobbies are painting, hiking and also traveling.

I have already planned what am I going to do after my graduation, but going and staying for a year in Germany is not one of them. I believe this is God’s plan for me. When I got to know that, I got selected as a volunteer in the UEM South-North program (2020-2021), I was very excited. I started googling Germany every single day. I read about their culture, the people, the food, the youth and many more things. After reading many things about Germany, I constantly asked myself this question a lot “what if? What if?” I started getting nervous. But my nervousness started fading away whenever Lisa Bergmann (The Officer of Volunteer United Evangelical Mission) and Jana Michler (my supervisor in Ev. Jugend, in my working place) replied to my emails kindly. They are very kind and friendly.

Lisa told me that I will be staying at “International Volunteers House” Dortmund. She gave me the website of the house and I visited it a few times. Reading the blogs and seeing the picture made me happy. The house seemed to be very comfortable, warm and filled with lots of joy. Lisa also introduced me to “Josephat Hema” who is currently living in the International Volunteers House Dortmund. I got a lot of information from him. He is such a kind person. He said that I will enjoy my year and will learn many things in Germany. After hearing this I became more excited than before. The warm welcome from Carolin (the person who is responsible for the International Volunteers House) made me feel welcomed. I was very happy when I got to know that Adelia Putri (Volunteer from Indonesia, my roommate during German Language Course in Siantar), Espérance and Georges (Volunteers from DR Congo) will also be staying with me in the International Volunteers’ House Dortmund, as well as Carol from India.

All my worries faded away because of the people who comforted me. But overall, I believe that everything is going to be alright because God is with me. I thank God for my parents who are very supportive towards my choice to go there and to meet new friend, to learn new things, and to develop myself.

I am looking forward to spend my one year, learning new things in Germany.

God bless us.

Louis