Old companions celebrate
The German electronics Store Mediamarkt once used the marketing slogan “Geiz ist geil” (tight is right). And the German Postbank wants to convince us that our life motto should be: ‘at the end of the day it is all about me’. Yesterday an email from the heart of Brandenburg reached us which shows that people do exist who are not manipulated by the zeitgeist.
They quote the Book of all Books: “It is more blessed to give than to receive!” Scientific studies have proved that “giving” does make one more content than “receiving.” Two couples from Oranienburg wanted to test this truth as they celebrated silver wedding anniversaries. Instead of asking for presents the hosts Humburg and Kroggel asked for donations for two projects: for a water-well-project in Zimbabwe and for the Hospital Diospi Suyana in Peru.
A four-figure sum has been received on Diospi Suyana’s bank account – a cordial dankeschön from the Andes.
On a personal note: my wife and I met the Kroggels in a church in 1995. After spending many years abroad, we returned to the Berlin area from our last stop in Johannesburg in order to gain our German medical qualification. Mike and Heike had married a year earlier. The frank cordiality of the Ossis (East Germans) did us a lot of good. The chemistry was there right from the start and our children crawled about on the church floor together. That was a quarter of a century ago. The church building has long been replaced by a modern multi-purpose building, the toddlers have grown up, the beards have turned grey and the looks in the faces have deepened.
Tempus fugit. The family saga continues. Trust in God’s goodness remains. Hope grows, our faith carries us through. We are all just passing through. We are old comerades. /KDJ
