Book Review: The Cost of Discipleship

Dietrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship is like reading a blade into your heart where the more you read the more that blade twists, ripping out every bit of pride and arrogance you may have had. When he says being a Christian means being willing to die a martyr in the name of Christ, he not only wrote it, but lived it.

Not too many weeks ago I was able to visit his church in Wroclaw, Poland, (previously Breslau, Germany) seeing his memorial. It is moving and tragic. There is a twofold reason for saying this. Bonhoeffer's grave was never found. He was executed in 1943 at the command of Himmler just a few days prior to his concentration camp being liberated by the Allies. Secondly, and more of a side note, what was once the church he pastored is now a Catholic parish since 1946 when Breslau once again became a part of Poland.

Day 2: Krakow, Poland

This morning began at 7:00a in Wroclaw. I woke up, showered, repacked, and then traveled to the “bankomat” (ATM), withdrew 100z (PLN) or about the equivalent of $33.33 USD, then grabbed our luggage. We had to make a trip from our hotel to PKP (the train station) where we then waited for our four-hour ride to Krakow (pron. Crackoov; Pope John Paul II was the archbishop here). Once we arrived, we met with a local IMB missionary who had us drop our bigger luggage off with a strange man in a small, unsecure building next to the train station. Hopefully it will be there once we head out on Friday morning.

Day 1: Wroclaw, Poland

Yesterday (October 17, 2011) we took off from the Bluegrass Airport around 12:45p, arrived in Charlotte, then to Munchen (Munich), and finally to Wroclaw (pron. Vrotzwav) around 11:00a. We lost a day due to traveling, were extremely tired since it was about 5:00a in the U.S. Last night (October 18, 2011) we finally went to sleep at 8:30p (2:30p in the U.S.).