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.

The Danger of Christianity

There are a great number of Americans who now, in retrospect, believe our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan to be a failure. Many want our troops back home. I can certainly understand where these people are coming from and I sympathize with them. To date we have lost more than 6,000 lives when you tally both so called "wars." Military involvement is dangerous and it not only affects the soldiers, but their families, friends, and neighbors as well.

Days 7-8: Glogow

Today, 25 October, has been the most emotional day of the trip, but I do not want to begin there. I want to first think about a conversation I had last night with my host family. When returned from a long day of teaching English and cleaning out a local church here in Glogow, Emma and I had kava and herbata with our hosts (coffee and tea).

Day 6: Lubin, Poland

Today was a blessed Lord's Day in Lubin. We were able to worship with our brothers and sisters in Christ here from Poland, but also two Ukrainian families as well. There were many familiar songs with the exception of Polish, but also some we did not know.

Day 3-5: Auschwitz and Birkenau

What a birthday present. Most cannot say they have been to Auschwitz, even fewer can say they have been on their birthday. There were a lot of surprises, one of which is how nice it is outside of the buildings in Auschwitz I. I do not say this to denigrate what its victims experienced, but to ask, "Why?".

I have become so confused over the Nazi concentration camp issue because I cannot understand why anyone would ever have so much work go into killing someone... The inmates were forced to build housing upon housing at Birkenau (Auschwitz II), but why? So they could house more Jews to be exterminated. It is still baffling. Why not just shoot them in their homes? Why not some other way? If one escaped, ten were tortured. They carrier their dead back to camp after a day's work so the Nazis would not accuse anyone of escaping.

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.).