How can I illustrate what Paul is trying to say [in (Philippians 1:21-26)]? With the story of Dr. Paul Toaspern, a brilliant man, a theologian, who lived in West Berlin. When that stupid concrete wall was going up that divided East Berlin from West Berlin, he could see--and I'm not trying to pun here--the writing on the wall. And he knew he would have to go with his young family back to East Berlin--in the opposite direction from the thousands of refugees who would be coming out--because he knew that the Lutheran church in East Berlin would need him and his theological expertise and his passion for missions. And he went back.

A year or so ago I went to see him on one of a number of occasions that I've been to East Germany. And as we were driving back toward Checkpoint Charlie in East Berlin, where I would cross the border into the West, I asked Paul the inevitable question: "How are your kids doing? Are they at university?" He said, "Oh, they don't go to university," and I thought, This man is brilliant; what gives? He said, "My children are very bright and academically would go far in university, but they will not join the Young Communist League, so they cannot go to university. But praise God, they're all training for the Lutheran ministry." "How about your parents, Paul," I asked as the car drove closer to the gate. "Oh," he said, "my parents are dead. The sad thing is that when they were dying, the government wouldn't let me back to see them, so I had to shout to friends over the wall and ask how they were doing." And then I said, "Paul, is there a tube train that goes from Checkpoint Charlie to the hotel where I'm staying?" With tears in his eyes, this beautiful man said to me, "I don't know, Bob. They've not let me back for twenty-five years."