Pastor's Letter for November I am now back after my trip to the Balkans in Europe. I got to visit churches, monasteries, cathedrals, art galleries, castles, and palaces in Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Austria, and Germany. It was especially moving to be present at the site where the Apostle Paul preached in Athens and Thessalonica, Greece. I loved the Meteora Monasteries perched on very high rocky mountains to see the beautiful wall paintings of the various Bible characters done in Byzantine style. Other highlights of the trip included the Rila Monastery in Bulgaria, the Melk Abbey in Austria, the Bishop's residence in Salzburg, the Michael Pacher altarpiece in St. Wolfgang near Salzburg, Austria. I got to view some of the great works of Christian art in museums. I have taught about these paintings for years. On this trip I got to see them first hand. In Greece I was privileged to attend an Orthodox baptism at Ousios Lukas Monastery in this ancient chapel with lovely mosaics. This was the water immersion baptism of a baby. I took pictures of it. In Vienna, Austria I went to a Franz Schubert mass sung by the famous Vienna Choir Boys Choir. I got to take a boat ride on a lake near Salzburg where the movie "The Sound of Music" was shot and to take a boat ride down the Blue Danube River. I attended a Mozart and Strauss Concert in Vienna with instrumental, opera, and ballet musical performances. Vienna is known for the great musical composers Haydn, Beethoven, Strauss, and Mozart. In Budapest I visited the home of the composer Franz Liszt. At the Albertina Museum in Vienna is Albrecht Durer's "Praying Hands." I got to purchase a print of this while there. I would like to share this story of sacrificial love. Back in the fifteenth century, in a tiny village near Nuremberg, Germany lived a family with eighteen children. Eighteen! In order merely to keep food on the table for this mob, the father and head of the household, a goldsmith by profession, worked almost eighteen hours a day at his trade and any other paying chore he could find in the neighborhood. Despite their seemingly hopeless condition, two of Albrecht Durer the Elder's children had a dream. They both wanted to pursue their talent for art, but they knew full well that their father would never be financially able to send either of them to Nuremberg to study at the Academy. After many long discussions at night in their crowded bed, the two boys finally worked out a pact. They would toss a coin. The loser would go down into the nearby mines and, with his earnings, support his brother while he attended the academy. Then, when that brother who won the toss completed his studies, in four years, he would support the other brother at the academy, either with sales of his art work or, if necessary, also by laboring in the mines. They tossed a coin on a Sunday morning after church. Albrecht Durer won the toss and went off to Nuremberg. Albert went down into the dangerous mines and, for the next four years, financed his brother, whose work at the academy was almost an immediate sensation. Albrecht's etchings, his woodcuts, and his oils were far better than those of most of his professors, and by the time he graduated, he was beginning to earn considerable fees for his commissioned works. When the young artist returned to his village, the Durer family held a festive dinner on their lawn to celebrate Albrecht's triumphant homecoming. After a long and memorable meal, punctuated with music and laughter, Albrecht rose from his honored position at the head of the table to drink a toast to his beloved brother for the years of sacrifice that had enabled Albrecht to fulfill his ambition. His closing words were, "And now, Albert, blessed brother of mine, now it is your turn. Now you can go to Nuremberg to pursue your dream, and I will take care of you." All heads turned in eager expectation to the far end of the table where Albert sat, tears streaming down his pale face, shaking his lowered head from side to side while he sobbed and repeated, over and over, "No ...no ...no ...no." Finally, Albert rose and wiped the tears from his cheeks. He glanced down the long table at the faces he loved, and then, holding his hands close to his right cheek, he said softly, "No, brother. I cannot go to Nuremberg. It is too late for me. Look ... look what four years in the mines have done to my hands! The bones in every finger have been smashed at least once, and lately I have been suffering from arthritis so badly in my right hand that I cannot even hold a glass to return your toast, much less make delicate lines on parchment or canvas with a pen or a brush. No, brother ... for me it is too late." More than 450 years have passed. By now, Albrecht Durer's hundreds of masterful portraits, pen and silver-point sketches, watercolors, charcoals, woodcuts, and copper engravings hang in every great museum in the world, but the odds are great that you, like most people, are familiar with only one of Albrecht Durer's works. More than merely being familiar with it, you very well may have a reproduction hanging in your home or office. One day, to pay homage to Albert for all that he had sacrificed, Albrecht Durer painstakingly drew his brother's abused hands with palms together and thin fingers stretched skyward. He called his powerful drawing simply "Hands," but the entire world almost immediately opened their hearts to his great masterpiece and renamed his tribute of love "The Praying Hands." The next time you see a copy of that touching creation, take a second look. Let it be your reminder, if you still need one, that no one - no one - - ever makes it alone!