By Gerald Kiffiak,
December 6, 2004

For some time we have encouraged Dad to write his memoirs. In the last

It has been my pleasure to assist him with the typing and some background research.

I would like to gratefully acknowledge the assistance of my dear wife

Noreen, Mom, and also Donna Kiffiak as "assistant proofreaders and editors".

It should not be surprising that the ’40’s occupy a significant fraction of

period he moved away from home. He turned to a new found faith in 1940 and

began to study the Bible intensively at Prairie Bible Institute. During his rural

ministry work in Northern Alberta he met a young lady who would later become

his bride. His studies—and courtship with Alice— were interrupted by a call to

service in the Canadian Army in 1941. After three years of training he saw nearly

continual action from July 1944 in Normandy, France, through Belgium, Holland,

and finally into Germany in 1945. Then in 1948, Sam and Alice Lievers decided

to finally get married. A first child followed a year and a half later. That was a

full decade!

Some background details have been provided by the editor in footnotes and

boxes throughout the text. Where more background was felt to be necessary it

was included in Appendices. References have been noted and are outlined in the

Bibliography. Some portions of the work take the form of diary notations. For

these, no attempt has been made to edit the abbreviated wording. Rather it was

thought better to retain the original sense of day to day life that the diary reveals.

This book is still a "work in progress". Input and suggestions are welcome.