he spoke and I was strengthened
It was in mid-1991 when my wife and I visited my sister Beryl in Darmstadt, Germany during the Festival to the glory of the holy Trinity. We had stopped by Switzerland for a brief holiday and in Germany we stayed in a hotel for the period of the festival when all rooms in the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary were filled. We had just two talks but what I remembered most was the “Festival of Heaven”, a wonderful service where we actually sang and walked through a nicely built “New Jerusalem”on stage. We met with the founder, Mother Basilea Schlink, and fellowshipped with old friends, Derrick and Connie Jacobs, whose daughter is sister Rubina, and we also got to visit a few places like Lord Mountbatten’s residence, the city of Wurms, linked to the father of the Reformation, Martin Luther. After that my wife left and I stayed on.
The grounds were beautiful: the motherhouse, the sanctuary, the chapel, the many prayer
groves, the prayer garden, the small farm, the ponds and gardens, the guesthouse and just wonderful space. The sisters and brothers were very joyful, hospitable, purposeful and fervent in their love for the Lord and for one another. They bear abundantly the fruit of the Spirit in their lives. They are mature yet child-like in their guilessness and faith. Many of the sisters were European and lived through the Nazi years or its aftermath.
I have been in ministry since 1980 and felt depressed, drained and powerless. The attendance for the church had declined; and we were a valley of dry bones. Like the 
despairing Ezekiel, I thought the bones would never live again. The temptation to throw in the towel was strong. I was alone and silence became my unwelcome friend. I stayed in a room in a guesthouse and interestingly saw the names of Joyce Huggett in the guestbook in the same room. There was breakfast, lunch and dinner and the liturgical 3pm afternoon prayer at the chapel. Most of the time, I was out walking, in the prayer grove meditating, or reading in my room or journalling my thoughts and praying. The most fruitful time were in the prayer garden where I sat or stood still, in silence, just being there with God, communing. God dealt and talked to me. On a few occasions, I sought the counsel of a Franciscan brother Caleb from Canada.
The one pivotal word that gave me hope and kept me in ministry was one of the sayings of Mother Basilea printed on a bookmark, which I received three time, one at the hotel
bed, one at the seat where I had a meal and one which I picked out of a handful from Mother Basilea’s hand. They have hundreds of sayings in bookmarks, but I kept getting the same one. God had to be speaking, it cannot be coincidental. “How God will transform your troubles I do not know, but that He will transform them I know for sure”. That word from God fortified my faith and gave me the perseverence to go through the remaining barren winter season before spring came. That word was pivotal in my life maturing process. He spoke and watched over His word to perform it.
2 comments October 25th, 2007
