
In the previous chapter, I mentioned how God told me in a dream to travel with some people who had built a boat to go home in.
Having set out in the boat, we alternately rowed and let ourselves drift in the water until we reached Ufa, in the Urals, where we were forced to leave our boat due to local unrest. Thankfully, we were able to switch to a Volga steamer, in which we travelled via Kazan to Nizhny Novgorod. The steamer was overcrowded with people and heavily loaded with goods. I shared space with a fellow traveler, sleeping in a narrow hallway. From Nizhny Novgorod, we continued our journey by train to Moscow, where the German consulate found us accommodations in a house. After about two weeks, we were able to continue traveling, and finally came to a camp on German soil.
In the camp, we were examined, and I was given eight weeks of leave before being drafted into the artillery, Germany still being at war with France at that time. While on leave, I went to see my family in Freudenstadt, Christophstal, in the Black Forest.
During my absence, my wife had taken care of the children and accepted a job as a train conductor. She had learned so quickly that she even taught other women.
On my journey to my family, our train stopped at a small station in the Black Forest. Suddenly, I saw my wife standing on the footboard of another train that was being shunted. I called my wife’s name, and although I was lost in the crowd surrounding her train, she immediately recognized my voice! However, she could not leave her post because she had duties to see to. Only after everything was done could we finally greet each other. It had been almost four years since our parting. What a reunion!
Thank God for His grace, which protected and preserved us during the time apart. A psalm had become particularly important to me: “While I live I will praise the Lord; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being” (Psalm 146:2). Neither of us had anything to be ashamed of, because we had remained faithful to each other. We could also hold our heads high before God because He knew our heart; that I can say to the glory of God.
The time of internment became a great blessing—not only for me but also for the others I was with. It was worthwhile to serve God faithfully, even during this difficult time, and I would not want to have missed this part of my life. To God be all honor for His wonderful guidance.
Back Home
I had eight weeks of vacation before I was due to be drafted into the military. However, when only four weeks had passed, my wife was able to use her connections at the train service to get me a job as an assistant stoker on a locomotive.
After about two weeks of working in a repair workshop for locomotives, I became very sick. It was the Spanish flu, which claimed many lives in various countries at the time. I became deathly ill with this pneumonic plague, which often needed only a few days to take the lives of healthy, strong people. It was said that twice as many people died of this disease as in the war, totaling 8 million deaths.
After lying sick in bed for two days, I was called up, but a doctor confirmed that it was medically impossible for me to obey the order. God spared my life, and the war ended in October 1918. In this way, the Lord had led me through the difficult years of war unscathed. Although I remained sick for a long time, the Lord gave me enough strength to attend the 1918/19 camp meeting in Essen. I then stayed in Essen to resume my activities there in the service of the Lord.
After the war ended, my wife and I were both employed by the railway, and we were very well off. Between my wife’s earnings and my sick pay, our finances were better than ever—until God instructed me to leave earthly considerations behind and go back into the ministry in Essen and the surrounding area. What lay ahead of us?
With the war lost, inflation was rampant. We could not count on receiving a preacher’s stipend because that was not done by our churches at that time. We had to ask for support on our knees. But to the glory of God, I can say that the Lord never let us down. For a preacher who had faith, this was not a problem, but an incentive to pray, and it kept us mentally healthy. In this respect, much was different from today. People did not go into service in the Kingdom of God for money or financial benefits, but that does not mean that this state of affairs was necessarily right; after all, the congregation is supposed to provide for the preacher. However, it was a step of faith for us to disembark from the boat of security and material prosperity and to give up our good earnings in order to stand on the promises of the Word like Peter once did.
By 1919, we had three living children, as our fourth child had died during the war in West Prussia. Nonetheless, the Lord rewarded our faith and kept us afloat.
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