4 April 2004, Sunday Morning

We had breakfast at the hotel again. Anna and Wojciech stayed there and planned to go to church. We planned to meet again in the evening at 7:00 pm for dinner. The rest of us drove in two cars to Nowa Kerkiew (Königlich Neukirch).

As we entered Nowa Kerkiew, we could already see people walking to church. Today was Palm Sunday, and the mass was about to begin.

This is the church where Kurt and Karen's great-grandfather was baptized. This is the town where Günter's grandfather's family lived and went to church.

Sheela and Elisabeth are in the left foreground as we walked toward the church. We decided to also attend.

The church was filled with families and people of all ages (unlike some of our experiences in Germany). As part of the service, we walked outside and around the church signifying Christ's arrival in Jerusalem. We thought the church might be so full because of the coming Easter holiday, but were told that they hold two masses every Sunday and one on Saturday night. Today there will be three masses to accomodate everyone. Poland is a country of great faith.

We met with the priest in the parsonage after church. He was very friendly and helpful. He helped us look through some of the old church records. It was an awesome experience to see and handle a book that was so old.

Günter was able to find the marriage of his grandfather Johann Jacob Mathia to Anna Oellrich. To Günter's great joy, he found information about two daughters in his great-grandfather's family that he was missing. Previously, his records showed only that two girls died as children and he had no names. He found the baptisms of all the children except for his father. This was disconcerting to him.