by Josephat from Tanzania

I was with my Tanzanian friends in the Friedensplatz enjoying the music performances during the Kirchentag when we heard a Swahili song performed. Swahili is a Tanzanian national language. We were excited, it was a good feeling. As we were getting back home after the closing of the service that day, we went to Dortmund Stadthaus Bahnhof waiting for the train. We were talking in Swahili. Then suddenly we heard someone asking us in Swahili:

“Are you talking Swahili? Are you coming from Tanzania?”

To our amazement it was not an African but a German talking to us in Swahili. He was a Pastor from Hamburg who spent a long time ministering in Tanzania and he still could tell a lot about Tanzania with a very good Swahili. We were so much astonished and happy. When the train came he joined his family and we together travelled to Wickede. Fortunately we together got off the train in the same station. When he again saw us he started singing a certain very famous Swahili Christian song called “Cha Kutumaini Sina” (I have nothing else to hope for (but the blood of Jesus)).We sang along and we were even more astonished that a big number of people around us sang along. It was a group pf young people from his church including his children. He told us that he also taught them Swahili. When we parted ways we all wished that moment could be a little bit longer.

The Kirchentag brought about the feeling of one world. I met many other people coming from different parts of the world. I remember spending some time around Spanish singers and enjoy their sweet music. There we so many international guests from African and Asia and other parts of Europe. During the Kirchentag there were so many political discussions on various matters facing the World such as wars and economic challenges. There were so many panels discussions crosscutting various matters the whole world is facing nowadays. It was so much good to feel that the world is no longer a vast space of people not connected anyhow. It is not a spheroid sphere whereby everyone minds his or her own business. But it is a connected network. The most wonderful concept is that, all those aspects happened during the event with the name and origin of the Church. This serves the crucial function of Christianity. Having time together, shaping each other and live a better life. The Kirchentag didn’t only connect Germans in faith but the World.