“Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil” and “when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away” (Mt 13:5-6; 20-21). *** A while back, Lula and I were on Usedom, a Baltic island off northeastern Germany—part of what was once Pomerania. I had wanted to visit that area for years because, within a radius of maybe 30 miles, that is the homeland of the Tiews family. Pastors sometimes have access to old baptismal records, so I hoped to visit a local church. There is only one Protestant (EKD) church in Seebad Ahlbeck, a quaint little town with stately mansions and villas from the Kaiser era. So, one afternoon I walked to the parsonage and rang the doorbell. The local pastor, a tall gentleman with salt and pepper hair, opened the door. I told him I was researching my ancestry in that region and asked him whether he might be familiar with the name “Tiews.” “Hmmm,” he replied. “Yes, that sounds familiar. Please come in, I might be able to help you.” Graciously giving me 1½ hours of his time, he dug up some amazing leads. But what struck me most was a comment he made about how scarce Christianity had become in that part of Germany: “In Pomerania, the plow of the Gospel did not dig deep enough.” He was referring to our Lord’s Parable of the Sower, in which Jesus explains that people who have not been catechized properly (“no root”) are susceptible to falling away from the faith in times of tribulation (in this case, 12 years of Nazis and 40 years of Communists). My visit with this dear pastor blessed me with new genealogical leads, but I also left with a somber thought regarding the future of Christianity back home: With the very thin catechesis in many of our churches and quite a few young families ignoring church altogether, will the plow of the Gospel dig deep enough to sustain future generations of Americans? (Image: with Pf. Henning Kiene, the local pastor).
The Tiews in Germany 