by Daniel from Zambia

Life as a volunteer is so fascinating because it is always a chance or an opportunity to learn many new things related to life as a whole, depending on the situation. This article discusses my experience at Himmelsfels where we camped for 4 days from June 9-12, 2022.

As a human being, not just as a volunteer, it is important to approach any situation with an open mind and optimism because everything happens for a reason. So when a situation or event occurs, are there questions to ask yourself and ask yourself, „What do I learn from this?“ Look at the positive and negative aspects, let both flow in and see what it has in store for your life and in the future.

First I arrived safely in Melsungen and was picked up from there by car; we drove to the mountain in Hesse called Himmelsfels. All preparations were already done and more than a hundred volunteers from different countries met there. Even though I was the only volunteer from Zambia, there was never a dull moment on Himmelsfels. I had many opportunities to interact and discuss with other people. We talked about our perspective on life, how the volunteer program is developing, how we feel now in an environment different from our own and how we cope with the culture, which is completely different from our culture of origin.

Aside from the interactions I had with other volunteers from around the world at Himmelsfels, a lot was learned. We had a wide variety of workshops to attend or participate in. My first workshop was with Johannas where he trained us in different ways how to pray and talk to God through meditation – it’s different when you can communicate and feel the presence of God.

Aside from attending workshops, we also had quiet times in the mornings, afternoons and evenings where we would gather to sing and praise God and pray together. I enjoyed this part because despite our differing originalities, when the time came for prayer and song we were all in unison and experienced joy and happiness because of the oneness found in God.

Also, in addition to many interesting and great lessons I had at Himmelsfels, I also had the opportunity to learn how the mountain was formed. More specifically, I learned that through an amazing and inspiring couple who were determined to seal the hole in the earth, the mountain was built and later distributed to young people around the world. This is shown precisely there on the Himmelsfels, where various messages are represented.

In summary, Himmelsfels is a great place to experience different perspectives of worship. The culture, not forgetting the best views of nature around the mountain top and many other experiences that have not been mentioned in this article as it is just a summary with a few impressions of what happened in these four days.