Ministry in Australia

investment for them. If one of them would want to buy their own place, we would sell the flat and give them the money for a deposit on their home. There shouldn't be too much of a disparity between flats and homes, whether the market went up or down.

From then on we earmarked all the money we received from our investments as our children's in a separate trust account. Over the years this accumulated and we bought another flat near Kings Cross and when a flat became available in the same block at North Sydney on the sixth floor, we bought it, in George's name.

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In 1973 the world was in the midst of an oil crisis. The oil producing Middle Eastern countries had finally realised their economic power, formed a cartell, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and petrol prices began to rise rapidly. As we had just the one family car, which I also used on church business, our petrol bill was quite considerable. I worked out that we would pay less for petrol, if we bought a second car. So in August we became a two-car family, with a second hand Leyland Mini Minor, bought for the reasonable sum of $1675. It made a big difference to the whole family. The large Holden Station Wagon was used by Alison on family business, and the Mini was used by me exclusively on church business. My calculations had been correct, at the end of each month our combined petrol bill was lower, as the Mini was very economical on fuel.

To our great joy, my parents came for another visit to us in December 1973. Gerda, who was married to David Prior since 1969, had bought in the meantime a terrace house in Paddington, and our parents were going to stay mainly with Gerda, as our house was too small. They came to us for Christmas, though, and when we went to Gerroa on a fortnight's holiday in a newly bought tent, they stayed at our place. We picked them up each day by car to spend as much time with our family as possible.

When we came back again, George and Mark agreed to sleep in our tent in the garden, so that their Oma and Opa could stay in their room. James moved together in with Margie. They stayed with us until after Vater's 80th birthday on 15 March 1974. A few days later we saw them off at Sydney airport. This was to be the last time we saw Vater, who died just over a year later after his 81st birthday. Whilst my parents stayed with us, Vater had news that his brother, Onkel Werner had died. This shocked him visibly, as it came unexpectedly, and Vater had been nearly four years older than he. Throughout their life, they had been very close.

Vater had been very popular amongst any people who came to know him. Utterly reliable and extremely honest, he stood straight and didn't bend with the wind. I had great admiration for him, and always wished to

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