Sunday Afternoon with the Grafs in Obernjesa

Sunday, May 5, 2013

At various times in our year in Germany, Manfred and Gerda have invited us to their home a number of times but we have never been able to make it work until now. Gerda and I had a long phone conversation one time in January attempting to figure out how to get our family to their village. The conversation was long because she speaks no English and I still struggle to understand German! She was so patient with me.

It was finally decided that they would ride their bikes to church on the 5th and we would follow them home. Their village is about 10-12 km away, which doesn't sound too far until you think that this couple is in their late 70s! Impressive. We were blessed with a picture perfect day!

Family photo with Manfred and Gerda Graf

Visiting together on their back porch prior to lunch being served.

Gerda really wanted to learn all of our names! So she had each of us write
our first names on clothespins and pinned them to our shirts. At the end of
the afternoon, she collected all of them and read the names aloud while
looking at the person.

~ Tracy with Manfred ~
Manfred shared stories with us from his childhood - one of eleven children!
He remembers the war vividly. What sticks with him the most is always being
hungry. His mom would often tell him, "After the war, we'll have more to
eat." I can't imagine having to say that to my kids, especially not knowing
when that would happen. Both Manfred and Gerda shared about the
rationing of food...I really don't know how they survived on so little.

When we asked Manfred about their home and how long they had lived there,
he told us that they bought the house because of the garden. Germans call yards
'gardens' which fits as Germans tend to grow more flowers, fruits and vegetables
than grass. Manfred joked that they loved the garden at this place so much that
they bought the house to go with it!

The little building is a clubhouse for the grandchildren. Rebekka, their
granddaughter who is a student at the university here, told us that she has
spent many a night in there with her cousins.

After lunch, Manfred taught us how to play Wikingerschach in the back
portion of the garden. We had such a blast that I purchased a set to bring
back to the states. Wikingerschach translates to Viking Chess and is so
much fun to play...can't wait to teach everyone this game!

Rebekka and her boyfriend, Christian, have helped her grandparents in the
garden on Sunday afternoons this spring (if it can be called that!) getting it
ready for guests. We were delighted to be their guests for the afternoon!

Gerda served a delicious soup for lunch - it had sliced brussel sprouts in
it....haven't tried that one before but will be making it in the fall. 

After soup, Gerda served us ice-cream for dessert. Then we spent a couple
of hours in the garden enjoying the very rare warm weather and sunshine.
Not wanting to overstay our welcome, Tracy told Manfred that we should
be going home soon. Manfred quickly told us that we still had to have
coffee and cakes - a typical German afternoon treat. Gerda had prepared
four different cakes and insisted that we try a piece of each! Needless to
say, we didn't need much for dinner that evening.

~ Micah, Joel, Noah, Josiah, Beth, Tracy, Manfred, Gerda and Rebekka ~

Rebekka took this photo so that Christian could be in one. Along with
hearing about WWII from Manfred and Gerda's perspectives, we also were
privileged to hear Christian's story of survival of the Rwandan genocide
in 1994. Being a young boy, his memories are those of his mother's but oh, so
powerful concerning the power of God displayed in such dire circumstances.
Due to a vision from the Lord, his mother knew that she and her three boys
would be safe so long as they didn't try to flee the country. Christian's younger
brother was born just days after the genocide began. We had the opportunity
to meet his mother and hear her story the following week at our church.
What a testimony to the power of the gospel and the gift of forgiveness!