by Hannah from India.

Kirchentag started a little early at the Referat with the arrival of international guests at the Referat ökumene on the 15th of June.  We started off with 30 international guests from nine different countries, all of them have been delegates from partner churches and partner organisations of the Church of Dortmund. Our sessions kicked off with fun introduction games, discussions, different views, Dortmund sightseeing and a lot of info about the forthcoming Kirchentag.

The Referat Team along with the Dortmund volunteer team stuffed the international guests with all necessary and required details about the Kirchentag and prepared them well for the big event.

On the other side our City Dortmund, shined all new with a ton of people, there were no more empty streets or banhs. The weather though started off dull, but picked up warmth and light on the following days. The city looked lively with a lot of newly planted flowers everywhere, fresh coats of paint in the city buildings and the Graffiti art.

We started Kirchentag with the opening act of remembrance following the Grand opening service at the Hansaplatz, each of us later followed our own schedule of events as per our interests. We came together during lunch and dinner at the tent along with the 2000 Kirchentag Volunteers, it was a whole new experience to dine with an energetic crowd with joyous songs and occasional screams.

We attended a lot of bible study programmes, youth programmes and hanged out a lot at the Global garden with international music and a warm cup of coffees. We listened to the very interesting Ambulance boat project presented by Dr. Bosolo himself (Doctor from the Democratic Republic of Congo) and the very dearly Volunteer’s house presentation and sang together ‘It’s a small world after all’ in unity.

The whole experience ended with a mega final service at the Signal Iduna park (the local football stadium) along with 35.000 people which was a magical experience, though we could not understand the whole event as English translation was not fully provided at the International Block our German Friends said that the sermon was Top Notch. We sang along to all the songs cheerfully and the Kirchentag came to an end with joyous hearts.

On the following days, we talked a lot about Kirchentag, had feedback sessions, took city views and
the program finally ended with the beautiful forest themed dinner along with the Superintendents
at the St. Petri Church with a lot of Songs, Music, food and dance.