Reflections on Living History

We had a remarkable meeting the other day with an itinerant pastor and his wife from the Canton area. Kathi and I were referred to him by some friends because he was born and raised in Germany. We really had no idea what to expect from this lunch. The couple was actually much older than we had expected, and it turns he was born in 1925 and was drafted into the German Luftwaffe during World War Two! He grew up in a German Christian household in Poland and was a teenager when Hitler invaded that country in 1939.

The man just had some unbelievable stories! He was drafted in the middle of the War, and he was supposed to be put into the SS, but was drafted instead into the Luftwaffe after his father had intervened for him. He was trained as a medic and fortunately only saw the last few months of the conflict. He was soon taken as an American POW where he was secretly shipped to the United States to serve his time. After his release, he emigrated back to America where he went to Princeton seminary where he met his wife, and then taught at various Bible schools.

He had so many encouraging things to say about our desire to minister in Germany. His heart is that the Gospel would be revived in his home country. It just amazed us to see how God moved so miraculously to bring this child of His through war, prison, and into His service. It was a unique and powerful connection with a history that's slowly disappearing.