After leaving school I trained in two coal mines in Germany (Ruhr District) to become a ‘Steiger’ (one who climbs). One mine was in the city called Herne and the other in Bottrop. I used to do that for almost eight years. All I can say is that I did not like it at all to be 800 meters under the earth.

THIS IS NOT A SILVER SPOON

At the moment I am reading the book 12 Sermons to Young People by C. H. Spurgeon.

In his sermon called THE BEST BURDEN FOR YOUNG SHOULDERS his text from the Bible is Lamentations 3:27, where it says, “It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.”

In that sermon he says, “The silver spoon in the mouth with which some people are born is very apt to choke them.”

When I read that I was thinking to myself that there are even parents who put a silver spoon into the mouths of their children and choke them. I would not go so far and say that they are doing that deliberately.

I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth and my mother was not able to put a silver spoon in my mouth either.

And some time ago, even before I read this sermon, I said that the best thing that could have ever happened to me when I was in my teens was to work for almost eight years in a coal mine.

The best training ever!