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Today would have been my father-in-laws 80th birthday. But cancer took him earlier this year. This article is my simple tribute to him. The same message was the delivered by Pastor Mueller during his memorial service in Edmonton. We would like everyone to know that we, his family and friends, loved him so much and we deeply missed him - Tess Rupprecht.

by Pastor Joachim Mueller

I would like to share a short summary of Karl’s biography with you from the details that the family provided:

Karl Hans Rupprecht was born on September 9, 1928 in Westhaid, Germany, a village close to Nuremberg.

After a short time of being a soldier in World War II and ending up in a soldiers’ prison camp, Karl eventually immigrated to Canada in 1951 where he continued working as a carpenter. It was here that he met his wife Erna and they got married in Vancouver in 1965. Their sons David and Norman also were born there and in 1971 the family moved to Edmonton due to respiratory problems that Karl was suffering from in Vancouver. Beside his work, Karl particularly enjoyed the outdoors and activities like fishing, hiking and camping. Those were special times that he also shared and treasured together with his sons.

His Christian faith which was deeply influenced during his teenage years by his pastor in Germany – who took time to go for long walks with Karl and to teach him playing the organ – continued to be an important part of his life as well. Karl has been part of our congregation since the early beginnings when the growing group of believers was still meeting at a house on 83rd Avenue. He helped build the present sanctuary in 1958 and was involved in many other ways in the life and service of the church as well – through such things as playing the organ for a number of years, singing in the choir until 2007, picking up seniors with the church van for Sunday Services, through generous giving and his faithful prayers and many other ways of showing love and care. After many months of suffering and struggles with cancer, God graciously took Karl to his eternal home this past Monday.

We will miss Karl a lot but we are also grateful that he is freed from all the burdens of his earthly existence and is able to see now his Savior face to face and to be able to experience what the Bible says will be joy unspeakable.

Today we say our temporary goodbye to Karl until we meet him again in glory before the throne of God.

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