Our big white American car rolled along the rain swept autobahn, looking to the world, like a loaded white elephant. Typical American tourists! Every German motorist on the highway must have been thinking that. With four little kids in the back seat and a baby between us in the front, the old car was filled to capacity. Strapped to the top of it were tents, a camp stove, suitcases and other assorted gear for a two week vacation.
I peered out the rain soaked window at the long road ahead. I'm sure my despondence was apparent, but I was trying hard not to show it. As a raindrop ran down the window I thought, tears... the world is crying! Then I deliberately made myself "lighten up" before I spoke and said aloud, "It will stop soon."
I heard Ted say something like "Humph!"
I knew he was getting tired and more discouraged with each mile. The kids were irritable and crowded, the rain incessant, and the water pump was going out on the car.
Some vacation! I thought, and almost said it aloud, but checked myself again when I glanced at Ted's slumped shoulders. It wouldn't take much to make him turn around and head back to Spain where we were stationed with the U.S. Air Force, and I wasn't quite ready to give up. So I stopped short of complaining and tried to look cheerful. However my thoughts kept returning to Why? that pesky question that had been pushing it's way into my mind for two days now. I had been determined not to acknowledge it, but suddenly it was screaming at me...demanding an answer and a reason.
Ted had worked for five years, pastoring a small flock of Christians, in a fellowship, on our Air Force base. He also directed a large youth group in the chapel, plus he was an air traffic controller in the Air Force. We hadn't had a vacation in those five years and we were tired. We had saved our money and planned, bought camping gear and fixed up our old car. We had looked forward to this vacation for over a year. It just didn't seem fair!
The rain slowed a little and I could now see a part of the German countryside. It was so beautiful! This is the most beautiful place in the world! I thought. As I gazed out across the landscape a lump rose in my throat. Beautiful things had always affected me that way and my mind went back to my first trip to Germany.
I had been given the opportunity as the president of the Protestant Women Of the Chapel organization to go along with my vice-president to a ladies retreat in *Berchtesgaden, Germany. All expenses were paid and travel arrangements made, by the Air Force and with much excitement we had spent one glorious week in the Bavarian Alps. We'd flown to Munich then taken a train to Berchtesgaden. I was remembering that train ride and how smoothly and noiselessly it glided through the mountains. We passed small villages straight out of Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tales, each village containing a big church with an onion shaped dome. The streets were dotted with quaint shops adorned with flowers and brightly painted symbols on the fronts. Across the green, hilly countryside outside the villages were larger houses, lovely farms, decorated as brightly as the store fronts in the villages. Occasionally, I'd spot a woman in a dirndl or a man in lederhosen walking across the hills. "They really do wear those things here." I'd said to Joan, my companion. "I thought they could only be seen in The Sound of Music and other movies. She agreed and we laughed together. "It's like a fairy land." she said. |
| Quaint German Village |
"Pretty things make me cry... and I guess I'm a little disappointed too, because I can't share this with my family. We haven't been able to afford to travel since we've been in Europe. We only have a little over a year left and may not ever get back again and we wanted so badly to see something of the continent before we go home. I'm grateful for this trip, but would so love to bring my family back here. See that chalet over there on the hill?" I asked, as I pointed to a lovely German farmhouse, nestled back into the hillside. "I'd love to bring them back here and stay in a place just like that. I know we'd never be able to afford a vacation like that and it makes me sad. I guess I'm just ungrateful. Ignore me, I'll get over it." My voice trailed away as I tried to end the conversation.
But Joan wouldn't let it end. she said, "Well there may be a way." She and her husband had traveled extensively while in Europe and she knew things I didn't know. She continued, "There is an Army camping facility near Munich and it's very cheap for military families. All you would need is camping gear, food and gasoline. Maybe you could save up for it and come back before you leave Spain."
Thus was born the dream! I returned home with pictures and plans. Soon the whole family caught the vision and we enthusiastically started saving and squirreling away camping gear.
At some point during the year, I felt obligated, as any good Pastor's wife would, to "pray about it". To give the whole thing to God so He'd have my permission to bless my plans or stop them if He wished, which I was sure He didn't wish!
At least I thought I'd given my plans to Him, yet here we were, three days into our dream vacation, having car trouble and traveling in blinding rain and I was struggling with anger. It's turning out more like a nightmare than a dream! I complained in silent prayer. Why? There it was again...that question that was haunting and accusing me. It just doesn't seem fair! I whined on at God. We haven't had a vacation since we've been in Europe and we'll probably never get back here again. We saved our money, fixed up the car, bought and borrowed all this camping gear and now it seems all for nothing. We can't even see the country with all this rain, much less camp in it!
The rain had started the first night while we camped in the little country of Andora between France and Spain, the car trouble the next day as we crossed the border into France. Ted, unwilling to give up so soon, made a decision to head straight for Germany instead of sightseeing in France as we had planned. In Germany there were several military bases where we could get American car parts. "We can see the sights in France and Switzerland on our way back." he said.
 |
| Bitburgh, Germany |
The following morning however, the situation looked even more hopeless, when there were no water pumps to be found at Bitburgh. I knew we had to make a decision soon. We couldn't continue to nurse the limping old car much farther without it stopping completely. Ted finally said over a cup of coffee in our friend's kitchen, "I think we'd better head back to Spain, if we don't find a water pump by the time we get to Munich. I just pray our car will make it all the way home."
I was so disappointed and I knew Ted was too, so I tried not to show it. I wanted to cry, but I swallowed hard and said, "You're right, but maybe the rain will stop and we can at least see the country."
All day we traveled south, nursing the car along , and all day the rain poured down. I prayed with almost every breath and alternated between repenting of every sin I could think of and being angry about the injustice being visited upon me. Somewhere along the way a scripture verse began to push it's way into my mind. "In everything give thanks..." I sighed, and accepted the rebuke. OK, I may as well give thanks. At least maybe that will keep me from crying.
Ever so often I'd see something through the rain and point it out to the kids, who were trying as hard as I was to enjoy the miserable trip. Finally Joel, with characteristic straight-forwardness said, "I wanta go home! This is no fun!"
Then I, seeing an opportunity to exercise my new found spirituality said, "Now son, the bible says, "In everything give thanks", so I think we should start thanking God in all of this trouble and quit complaining." For the next few miles I expounded on the biblical principal of gratitude in all circumstances and how it demonstrates faith in the goodness of God and blah, blah, blah until everyone (including me) had it down pat.
Night came on and the car seemed to be running pretty well, so we pushed on toward Munich. Besides, the rain was still coming down hard and there was no way we could put up a tent in this weather.
Finally we followed the military map we'd been given and went straight to the camp grounds near the army base at Lake Chimse. Ted shinned the car lights on a locked gate with a guard house nearby. Finally he took a deep breath and got out and ran to the guard house, to talk to the G.I. keeping vigil there. He informed Ted that the gate was locked at 11:00 p.m. and it was now 11:15. They wouldn't open it again until morning. He said that there was an Army hotel up the road and perhaps we could get a room for the night there. When Ted got back into the car there was another decision to be made. We had food for a week and money to pay five dollars a night for a campsite. There was enough left over to buy gasoline back to Spain, but certainly not enough for a hotel room for two adults and five kids.
"Now what?" asked Ted. The children were all asleep except for Joel. He had awakened in Munich. "Go on over to the hotel and see if you can rent one room for us. The two boys can sleep in the car." I said.
"Thanks!" grumbled Joel.
We watched as Ted disappeared into the hotel lobby. As we waited, Timmy awakened. "Where are we? What are we going to do? I don't wanna go home. That's no vacation. We were supposed to have a vacation!" came his torrent of complaints.
Suddenly I lost it! "Be quiet and quit complaining! I can't take anymore of it. I hate this rain and everything about this miserable trip! I want a dry bed for one night, then I want to go home and be done with it!"
"Mom." the irritating, calm voice came from Joel.
"What!" I snapped.
"In everything give thinks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." he quoted.
I felt my face flush with anger, as I realized he had quoted the entire verse. That irritated me even more, because I had only remembered the first part of it, when I had expounded on it earlier that day. Once again I felt tears sting my eyes, so I turned my head toward the window and said. "Let's quit talking about it!"
After a short while, Ted jumped into the car wiping rain from his face. "They're full up." he said, "but the man at the desk suggested that we go back to the little village about five miles away and try to rent a room in a guest house. They are quite cheap and comfortable. At least they will be dry."
"Oh well, if we're just going to stay one night we might as well live it up. Get rooms for all of us if you can." I replied.
We reached the village quickly and stopped at four different guests houses only to be told that there were no vacancies. We were about to stop at the fifth when Ted practically stopped in the middle of the street as two couples, sharing one umbrella, ran in front of our car to cross the street. He pulled over to the curb and parked in front of the guest house and got out of the car.
I watched him in the rain and thought, Poor guy, he's soaked to the bone! I heaved a sigh and said to Joel, Kelly and Tim, "Let's pray, kids. There's just got to be a room somewhere for us."
We all bowed our heads and I prayed, "Lord, you know we need a room for the night. We're tired and Ted needs a good night's sleep so he can drive all the way back to Spain tomorrow, so if you'd just provide us a room, we'd be grateful...Amen... oh yes, and thank you Lord for everything." When we opened our eyes we were surprised to see Ted across the street, under the crowded umbrella with the two couples.
"What's he doing, Mom?" asked Timmy.
"I don't know", I said. "He doesn't speak a word of German."
"Boy, wouldn't it be great if one of those people was a rich man with a big house and he'd take pity on us and rent us a room for the night!" said Timmy.
I rolled my eyes and thought...kids!
Ted returned to the car after a few minutes. He squeezed into his seat laughing and whooping like a crazy man.
"What happened?" I asked.
"You're not going to believe this! That man is a farmer who rents out rooms in his farmhouse for the summer. He's going to rent us one for $4.00. One of the women with him spoke English and translated for me. We're supposed to follow him to his house!"
 |
| Bavaria |
After following for twenty minutes or so he said, "All right, I'm going to give this guy ten more minutes and if we don't come to a farm house by then, we're going to turn around and go back!"
I laughed nervously, "Where would we turn around? We're sandwiched on both side by trees and brush and there are no side roads. We'd have to back up twenty miles!"
Finally we did reach a farm house. It was well lit by a couple of flood lights hanging from the roof. After running in and making the arrangements, checking out the room and paying his $4.00, Ted returned for me and the kids. "It's great!" he reported... huge room with two double beds a couch and a dresser."
"Is it clean:" I asked.
"Come see." he said as he scooped up the sleeping baby and ran through the rain.
The room was clean...scrubbed described it better, and dry, with two big beds that held comfortable mattresses with extra feather comforters on top of them. The feather comforters went onto the floor for the two boys while the girls got the other bed and the baby Jennifer slept between Ted and me. We were so glad to get into dry pajamas and crawl between clean, sweet smelling sheets. The rain on the roof lulled us to sleep in a matter of minutes.
My eyes popped open early the next morning and I looked at my watch in the semi-darkness of the room. Seven-thirty! Is that all? I feel like I've been asleep for days! I can't ever remember being so tired. Then another thought occurred to me. It's so quiet... no sound of rain! I flung the covers back and that woke up Jennifer, who woke up Ted. Then I bounded over to the window, unlatched the wooden shutters and threw them open.
Warm sunlight burst in upon the sleeping boys but I barley perceived their chatter in the background, because it was happening to me again. Tears were streaming down my face as I gazed out across the most beautiful panorama I'd ever seen anywhere, except in a movie.The farm house was a chalet (just like I'd seen in my dream vacation) built on a mountain, surrounded by meadows. In the field beyond the barn, three deer were playing. In the yard next to the house was a tall flagpole and flying from it was a little blue and white triangular flag with one word on it...Gottersburgh.
There was a knock on the door and an old German lady on the other side was chattering excitedly about something. Ted grabbed his German to English dictionary and eventually understood that our $4.00 a night bought us breakfast in the dinning room downstairs and it was ready for us. We dressed and hurried down to file into a neat little dinning room. It had a round table draped with a pretty cloth, six chairs and next to it was a large blue and white ceramic furnace, that almost filled the room. The furnace made it the warmest room in the house which was welcome on this crisp mountain morning. We were served big, fresh Kaiser rolls with honey and butter, coffee and hot chocolate. As we ate our breakfast we looked around the walls at family pictures. Our host family had lost a son in the Second World War and his picture was displayed in the center of all the others, his young, handsome face smiling proudly in his Nazi uniform.
Thus began the first of ten, adventurous, rainless days during which time we found a water pump for our car and were able to swim in a private lake. From our chalet we ventured forth to Berchtesgaden, Germany, Salsburgh, Austria and other picturesque sites which will forever remain in our memories. It was indeed the vacation of our dreams!
At the end of ten days Ted said what we all knew he must eventually say, "It's time to go home." The next morning about 11:00 a.m , with the children and gear packed in the car, we waved goodbye to Ludwig and his family and started winding our way through the yard and down the hill. As we pasted the little flag pole, which bore the name of this beautiful place, I looked up at it flapping in the breeze and said, "Gottersburgh". Did any of you ever find out what that word means?"
"Yes, I did," spoke up Michelle, from the back seat. I asked a German lady at the lake yesterday and she said it means, God's Place." Everyone fell silent as rain drops began gently hitting the windshield.
"This is the first rain we've seen since we arrived here." said Ted, as he turned on the windshield wipers. As the wiper blades began their rhythmic trip back and forth across the windshield, they seemed to chant with every beat... "In-every-thing-give-thanks, In-every-thing-give-thanks, In-every-thing-give-thanks..."
*Berchtesgaden, for you history buffs, was one of the hide-out headquarters for Adolf Hitler during the Second World War. It was a palatial home that has now been turned into a resort hotel and Christian retreat headquarters. It has a labyrinth of tunnels underneath it where Hitler and his men could go if they were bombed. It's tucked away high in the mountains and the view from there is breathtaking. During the war it was called "The Eagle's Nest".
No comments:
Post a Comment