“Hallo!” My name is Mariah Broadbent, and this past summer, I studied abroad in Leipzig, Germany with ACU’s Psychology Department. I lived in Leipzig for about five weeks and also traveled to the Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Italy during that time. To try to write about everything I experienced while I was abroad would be nearly impossible–and would make this blog post a “blog novel.” Instead, I want to share about two moments that changed me as a student, person, and Christian.
The first moment happened when our class visited Buchenwald. Buchenwald was a concentration camp during World War II and is now a memorial site. While we were touring the camp, our professor told us that there was something he wanted us to see. He led us past the camp’s fence and into a bear enclosure. I had no idea why we were there, but he soon explained that the enclosure was once a part of a zoo located here. Officers, their families, and couples would often come and be amused by the black bears–despite the reality that men, women, and children were being overworked, beaten, killed, and incinerated or buried only a hundred feet away.
At first, I was angry that people went to this zoo and ignored the evil taking place right in front of them. “They should have done something,” I thought. Then, I realized, “How many times have I ignored the evil taking place around me?” It is comfortable to condemn the Germans for what they did or did not do, but I cannot know that I would have acted differently. In my own life, there have been times when I did not stand up for what was right simply because it was difficult. This realization challenged me to change. Yet, I doubted whether I could realistically change myself–that is until we arrived in Wittenberg five days later.
Wittenberg is the town where Martin Luther famously nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the church door in 1517. Theses criticized the Catholic Church’s selling of indulgences and greatly angered the clergy. However, Luther never wavered from his beliefs, even when his life was in danger because of them. While our class was there to learn about his life, my hope was to discover how to become more like him.
At the end of the day, we visited The Luther House museum. Inside the museum was a hallway filled with Luther’s quotes. One of the quotes on the wall struck me like lightning. It said, “Where Christ is, there he always goes against the flow.” The secret I had been searching for since Buchenwald had been revealed! To have courage, I needed to know where Christ was. By knowing and being where He is, I will naturally go against the tides of culture, groupthink, and religion. Put another way, only a relationship with Jesus can help me stand up for what is right. These two moments alone made the entire trip worth it for me, and I would encourage anyone looking to challenge themselves as a person to study abroad!
