Faith and encouragement

Thank you, John Stucke, for the wonderful article “An uncommon bond” (Feb. 20).

The providential meeting of PK (for “preacher’s kid”) paratrooper Allan Wood and priest Arnold Schoffelmeer on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2010, at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center brought back memories of young men surviving against the odds in World War II Europe.

Recently I heard Dr. James Edwards of Whitworth University speak on another man of that era, Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was a staunch supporter of the Barmen Declaration and trained theological students to become pastors in Confessing Churches. The authority of the Scriptures of both Old and New Testaments was emphasized. Bonhoeffer was imprisoned for participating in a plot against Hitler’s life and hanged three weeks before Hitler committed suicide.

These three men from America, Holland and Germany answered a call and paid a price – but not like the 20 million Germans who lost their lives under the false messiah who could stir up emotions with his bold rhetoric while subverting the infrastructure of German society – including medicine, education, law, economics and the military.

There is always a cost of discipleship and John Stucke knows how to tell the story of faith and encouragement.

Donna Kuhn

Spokane