Farewell Potluck

We made sure to be in LU this Sunday because the farewell for Greg Rabus and Jennifer Otto and their family was planned.  Who knew when we showed up at 10 a.m. that we'd be leaving at 5 p.m.!

And little did we know that the worship service would start with a lovely farewell for us, including gifts!  From the church we received a beautiful bouquet, a bottle of local wine, fine chocolates, a soapstone box from Kenya, and a picture book about the area (Palatinate= Pfalz).  Greg gave us a framed picture of me teaching and Jack with one of his kids, in addition to his hand drawn sketch of the Friedenshaus front door with the sign we put up each morning.  One of my students gave me a necklace and another a bag of coffee from Syria.  A third student sent his children with a box of chocolates.  From church members we got a book of wisdom, a LU calendar along with mixed nuts, and many kind words. 

Harry gave Jack, with whom he worked on building a youth room in the church basement, a metric measurer with LU name on it.  He said some witty things to Jack.  They love each others jokes and stories!

After the church service Jack was involved in helping set up the food in our house's front passage way.  It was a hot day and this was a great cool place to set it up.

Jennifer leads the food line up and an Iranian friend at the end.  He has converted to Christianity since coming to Germany.  I asked him how much he understood of the sermon, but he said very little.  I wonder what goes through his head as he attends our activities.

There's a small open courtyard between our house hallway and the church entrance.  Tables were set up under the bows and huge fig tree,

plus some under a tent and everyone ate, drank, and visited.

At 1:30 p.m. the farewell program for Greg and Jennifer began.  We'd invited our students to come at this time because it was after the meal and they aren't eating or drinking till around 9:30 p.m. during Ramadan.  It was 85 degrees.  Everyone was perspiring. 

Above Wolfgang is presenting Greg and Jenny with some presents and appreciative words about their last 2.5 years at Friedenshaus.  They had the vision and presented it to the congregation.  The congregation agreed under the condition that they'd merely supply the place.  All agreed that God's hand could be seen as the congregation became more and more intricately involved in the work of Friedenshaus - house of peace.

The congregation also presented them with a wall hanging comprised of squares many of us contributed. 

Some of our students and their children wanted this picture above.  They weren't represented by a square, but wanted to be sure Greg saw their appreciation.

 Some of them brought gifts as well.

I spent the next hour or two inside the church following the farewell with visiting, primarily with our students.  Of course there was no food or drink, but there was good conversation!

Outside homemade German cakes were laid out and strong coffee was served.  

(Don't worry!  I still got to taste almost every cake!)

Kids tied themselves up for fun!

Stories were shared.

It's sad to see Greg and Jennifer have to leave this project that they developed.  She got a dream job offer in Canada.  The good news is that a replacement has been found for the position of Friedenshaus coordinator.  A young woman from Canada will be starting in September.  Everyone is optimistic.  I heard a number of Inshallah - God Willing!