Geneva- Part II

Friday was my second full day in Geneva and I spent it hitting up all the sights around town I had missed the first day- I went inside a few of the museums that I actually had to pay for (but had decided they were worth it after sizing up the competition). I found (right by St. Pierre's Cathedral in the old city) and English speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church and I met a nice lady named Marian who told me I could come to church on Sunday with all my luggage and store them in a locked office. Nice to know I had some sort of plan for later days!
I bought some Swiss chocolate, looked at them time on my Swiss watch and wished airplanes were cooler with knives so I could have pulled out my Swiss army knife, but I knew I had it back in Galway. The Swiss do those three things and not much else, but they do them very well.
After ogling the Ferrari and Maserati dealership across the street from an overly symbolic and new-looking Catholic church, I headed back to the hostel for dinner since I knew I could get a balanced meal for cheap since all I had been living on for the past few days was cheese, bread, and PB&J. I met up with my German roommates and we had dinner together- it was really nice. Ejavet was in Geneva to apply for a job with the Red Cross and Erga, his childhood friend was along for "companionness" as they called it. Erga didn't know nearly as much English as Ejavet, so I talked mostly with Ejavet and learned that he was actually Turkish but had lived in Germany since he was an infant. Erga made a few jokes now and then, but he was mostly hard to understand but it was still cool. After dinner, I went to watch a few more chess games then game back for an early bedtime since I knew I planned on hiking the next day.
As I lay in bed, reading my Bible, Mahdi and the Germans came back in and they noticed I was reading a Bible. Mahdi proceeded to tell us about his Muslim prayer rituals (in fact I accidentally walked in on him once- that was embarrassing) and he and Ejavet started to get into some arguments about Islam (Ejavet is a nominal Muslim having been born in Turkey but raised in German Christian culture). Ejavet is very well educated and knew his stuff, but Mahdi definitely practices it all regularly and I could tell the each looked down on each other. Soon enough, Mahdi started talking about Isa in the Injils (Jesus in the Gospels) and wanted me to know that Jesus predicted the coming of Muhammed. Fortunately (the better and more accurate word here is blessedly), I knew exactly what he was referring to, having talked about it in our classes back in Galway. Turning to John 14:16, I read the words of Isa that Mahdi was referring to and he got very excited to hear me "confirming" what he said. But I went on, reading that this Counselor would live in us and I asked him how Muhammed as a human being could live in other people. Mahdi read the words over and over again and got kind of confused and so I tried to tell him that the Counselor could not be a man like Muhammed but a spirit, the Spirit of God. At this point, Ejavet interjected saying that it was wrong to believe that God would live in a person then Mahdi said, "Oh but I think something divine lives in this girl I met... oh how I want to go to the Russia to see her..." and our theological conversation was effectively ended as the other guys started making fun of him. I was excited about the door God had opened though and hoped I had planted some seeds. I prayed that night that God would use me to reach my roommates throughout the trip and that I would be able to follow His lead and not mess things up. Little did I know where that would bring me...


And again, I pause for an intermission for my homework and your attention span. Yes, I know there are no pictures yet: I still have much of the story to tell and I don't want you distracted by the Swiss Alps (oh yes there are Alps, where did you think I'm going hiking?) while I'm trying to tell you all about how God used the situations with my roommates and all the people I met.