Experiences from the Life of Johannes Altwein
NIGHT RIDE
Once while driving my car at night, there was poor visibility. The lights of oncoming traffic blinded me. I cannot explain why, but I suddenly felt an urge to stop the car. My wife asked me: “Why are you stopping?” I didn’t know it myself. When the oncoming traffic decreased and I could see better, I caught sight of a group of four or five people just in front of me, riding their bicycles. I shudder to think what could have happened had I not listened to my inner voice.
God’s guardian angel had made me stop to protect that group of bike riders. Up to the present day I am so grateful that an accident was averted that way.
MY INNER VOICE
Over the weekend we had Adventist visitors from the Rhineland. After the Sabbath service we had lunch together. However, I felt an urge to visit a sick woman, a fellow believer in a nursing home. I thought it was almost impolite to leave the group, but nevertheless, I excused myself and went to visit Sister Rind. We had a good conversation for about an hour and then prayed together before I left.
She smiled at me, waving goodbye while I stood at the doorway. After I had closed the door, I was overcome by a strong feeling that I would not see her alive again. Unfortunately, she died the next morning.
It is important to pay attention to God’s voice. I am so thankful that I listened to the voice of God. Had I, for convenience, postponed my visit to the following day, I would not have been able to see sister Rind and have a last conversation and prayer with her.
WHEN THE PRISON GUARD CRIED
After those severe years of war and persecution it was a great privilege for us to attend meetings and conferences again with our fellow believers. It was such a joy. When a conference was planned in Solingen, I knew, to get there, we would have to cross the border again. Fellow-believers from abroad, who had been separated from us for years, would be present too. Even brother Kozel from Argentina was there.
Through the preaching of the word during the conference I was inspired to work for God. The message was the source of my enthusiasm. I found a like-minded person in brother Rudi Sabat. Like me, he came from the “Russian Occupied Zone”. This is how it was called in those days. As I was only 17 years old at the time, I was glad to have someone experienced by my side, for he was almost twice as old as me. Our first missionary leaflet: “Burning questions of the present time!” was meant to make people reflect and bring them closer to God. There was still enough space in our luggage for a thousand of those leaflets, which we distributed after the conference.
Our mission was to start around Schweinfurt, where we were invited by dear fellow-believers. Since we did not have any money for fares, we had to hitchhike, but at that time, there were not many cars on the streets, but mainly trucks. Truck drivers were not willing to stop for us. Thus, we decided to jump on the trucks on sharp bends or steep mountains, where they had to slow down anyway. We jumped between the vehicle and the trailer. As you can imagine, that was not always an easy task.
I remember especially one incident when we had to jump off a truck again. Since we neither knew where the truck was going, nor where we were exactly, we chose a place to jump off which we thought was suitable, simply because of the slow speed of the truck. We threw both backpacks off the truck to the side of the road and Rudi jumped, but meanwhile the driver accelerated, so it became too dangerous for me to jump too at the same time. I had to wait for the next opportunity, which was in the middle of a village. Then I started walking my way back and finally I saw Rudi coming towards me, tired and weary from carrying both backpacks, but we were overjoyed to have found each other, since he didn’t have a clue where the truck had taken me.
However, we were not always so lucky as to get a lift. Sometimes we just had to walk for a day.
When we had reached the area of the border, we were picked up by an American military patrol. They wanted to see our passports. When they noticed that we had come from East Germany, we were ordered to get into their Jeep. They started driving, but unfortunately not in our desired direction, but to a prison. Rudi was taken into a prison cell, and I was taken to the young criminals. However, we did not really regret it, for this was an opportunity for us to eat and sleep for free for the night. We were even allowed to take our Bible and some missionary leaflets into our cell. The next morning, when we met during the daily round in the prison yard, Rudi happily told me: “Now I know why we ended up here. I had the opportunity to talk about the truth with the prisoners. I had worship and prayed with them.” Rudi was overjoyed.
Later in the day we were called for interrogation. They questioned us about the situation in the Soviet Occupied Zone, especially regarding military movements and exercises. Our statements were recorded in writing. Only then did it become clear to us why we had been picked up. After the interrogation we were taken to a judge, who acquitted us.
A prison guard came and opened the door of our prison cells. We thought that we were free to go wherever we wanted, for they had returned our backpacks. However, the prison guard let us know that we would be picked up by a Jeep and be taken back to the Eastern border again. Rudi explained that we did not want to go back to the East, since we were here for a purpose. Each of us had a thousand missionary leaflets, which we wanted to spread in the country. The guard did not seem to be interested in our petition and he returned curtly: “This is not possible. People are always taken back to the East from here, without exception!” Thereupon Rudi replied: “If God does not want us to go back now, you will not get a Jeep for us.” Very self-assured the guard returned harshly: “This will not happen. We have a lot of Jeeps!” Bravely Rudi asked: “Do you want to work against God?” Without wavering, the prison guard called the Americans to get the Jeep, but in vain. There was not one Jeep available. This never happened before. Suddenly, the prison guard looked at us, totally stunned and then started crying bitterly. We never expected anything like that from the harsh prison guard. Compassionately, Rudi asked: “Is there anything we can do for you?” After a short pause, he said: “If you have such a close connection to God, can you please pray for my wife? She is very ill.” Of course, we promised to gladly do so, and he calmed down again and thanked us very cordially. After that he apologized for treating us harshly before, explaining that this was the tone of the prison. We understood.
From then on, we were free to go wherever we wanted.
This happened on Friday night, and we needed a place to sleep again. So, we went to the police station and explained our situation to them. They allowed us to sleep in the “sober” cell. There we celebrated the beginning of the Sabbath and left our future to our heavenly Father. When we looked out of the small window on Sabbath morning, we saw a truck on the street with the letters “Road Construction Schweinfurt”. This was exactly our destination. We grabbed our belongings and ran. Rudi inquired of the truck driver whether that was the direction he was going to, and if we could get a lift. He agreed and then I knew that the last stage of our journey would start. Shortly before the beginning of the Sabbath service, we arrived at our dear fellow-believers’ house, where they were already eagerly waiting for us. In view of our outward appearance, what can I say, they jokingly welcomed us with the words: “Come in, you dusty brothers.”
With the support of our fellow believers who were always ready to make sacrifices, and thankful to God for His guidance, we were able to plan our missionary work for the upcoming weeks.
PAYING ATTENTION TO GOD’S VOICE
During my last employment before I migrated to Australia (1982) I had a colleague with whom I often worked together. One day in 1973, when I was on the road on behalf of our company, I had a certain feeling as if someone said to me: “Go and see your colleague at his home!” At first, I thought: “How can this be? It is during working hours!” However, my urge to go and see him became increasingly strong, so I made up my mind and went to see him.
His children opened the door. I asked them: “Is your daddy home?” The next second he stood in front of me. Astonished and enraged he asked: “What did you come here for?” I answered hesitantly: “I don’t know, I just felt as if some higher authority talked to me, and I simply needed to obey.” “Come in”, he said, leading me into the back room so we would not be disturbed. After he had closed the door behind him, he said straightaway: “I will kill my wife because she betrayed me. I caught her in the act of adultery.” He cried bitterly, saying: “We are a family, and now that!” I knew for sure that if I did not react correctly now, a disaster would happen, because he was very impulsive by nature. In his rage he could do anything. Silently, I begged God for help. I listened to him attentively as he told me about his miserable state. I knew that he was working other jobs next to his main occupation, until late at night. So, I said to him: “Maybe your wife felt neglected. You cannot make her solely responsible.” I told him not to harm her, but to try to be always good to her in the future if he wants to win her love. Our discussion went on for hours. Then I said to him: “I will not leave this house until you solemnly promise me, with a firm handshake, that you won’t harm her.” Finally, he shook my hand and assured me that he would not do any harm to his wife.
Even though they got divorced, he was always helpful towards her and treated her in a friendly manner. Later, she got married again to another co-worker. He too got married again to a work colleague. My wife and I were present at his wedding.
Surprisingly both women became good friends. It just turned out that both new couples moved onto the same floor of a multi-story building, and they all got along quite well together. One time, when my colleagues and I were sitting together, he pointed at me, saying: “If this man would not exist, I would be in prison today.” And to me he said: “I don’t know what you have done with me. I am always good to my first wife; I simply can’t do otherwise.” Unfortunately, in 1998 he had a heart attack and died at the age of 57. Some years later his second wife visited us in Australia. When I told his first wife that he was ready to kill her after he found out about her affair, she was very moved. After a short silence she said: “You have saved my life. Knowing him, he would have done it.” Listening to the voice of God prevented so much damage to that family including their children. They would have lost both parents.
HEAVY RAINS
I have been living in Australia now for many years, and my God has been here with me just the same.
In 2005 I planted several hundred trees with a friend in Queensland, Australia. A short time later, he asked me to come up again to help him with the construction of an irrigation system for the new plantation. My friend and I live about a five-hour drive away. When I arrived, he seemed to be distressed. After a long dry season, heavy rain and possible floods were forecast for the whole region. Now he was not sure whether he did the right thing calling me to come all the way to help him, because not much could be accomplished in the torrential rain in Queensland.
I calmed him down by telling him that I had prayed for an undisturbed outcome of our project. I assured him that we could confidently start our work even though pitch-black clouds were gathering in the sky. The ground condition there is not suitable for heavy rainfall, it is a deep, black, sticky soil. In wet weather you almost get “stilts” underneath your shoes.
It already started to rain on one part of his approximately 40-acre plot of land. It was very heavy rain, a typical tropical downpour. My friend quickly wanted to put away the tools, but I reminded him that I had prayed for good working conditions, so we cannot just pack up and go, but should trust God and continue working.
So, we worked – and worked. There was such heavy rainfall from all directions, that we could hardly see the road or his neighbor’s house, and yet, the rain did not reach the area where we worked. It was as if the rain was cut off from our dry little island, which was surrounded by floods, and this was repeated every day.
On the fourth day my friend’s wife drove to the nearby town to do some shopping. Everybody was talking about those heavy downpours. They were the main subject of conversation. She could hardly drive because the water on the streets was about ankle-deep.
Meanwhile, we were still working, without getting wet, until our irrigation system was completed. Nobody from the whole region would have believed, that precisely, that spot had been spared from the rain.
My prayer had been heard. Once again, it had proved worthwhile to be confident and to hold on to my faith, even though circumstances seemingly forecast the opposite.
AN EXPERIENCE IN THE MIDST OF WAR MADNESS
My wife Karla was also blessed with having her own experiences with the Lord, during the madness of war. As a child she lived in Cologne, a city which was brought down to rubble through bomb attacks. She lived with her family on the ground floor of a three-story building.
Her family also believed firmly in God. In those days, to protect their own lives from the National Socialists, they had to hide their precious Bibles and Christian books from them. They also needed to protect these books from the bomb attacks. For this purpose, they built a wooden box, which they hid down in the storage cellar of their house. In emergencies, the cellar could also be used as a bomb shelter. They placed the books on the top of another wooden box, in which they were hiding their potatoes. These potatoes were food for the family for the whole winter.
This following miracle happened at the start of October 1944. At the sound of the bomb alarm, the grandmother, mother and three children went down into the shelter part of the cellar. The official nearest bunker, where the whole neighborhood was running to as fast as their legs could carry them, would have been a much safer place to be in a bomb attack, but grandmother had a broken hip, so the whole family stayed with her at home.
Through the bomb attack the electricity was cut, so they lit some candles and prayed earnestly for God’s protection. Every time a bomb hit the ground nearby, they could hear the dreadful crashing, and felt the ground shake tremendously. Suddenly, air pressure and dust blew their candles out, and then they knew what had happened. After the enormous dust cloud finally settled a little bit, Karla’s 16-year-old brother Bernie walked through the cellar. When he looked up, he could see from there through the first floor, the second floor, the third floor, and then through the roof of their house into the open sky. Immediately he shouted: “We have to get out of here, we have a bomb in the house!” Through an opening they all rushed to safety to the neighbor’s house on the left, and they wondered why the bomb did not explode.
Sometime later when everything had settled, they found out what happened. A 600 kg bomb shot through the roof of the three-story building and landed directly in that cellar, exactly on the box with the precious books. The bomb was supposed to explode and at the same time release phosphorus in all directions to incinerate everything around it. But it fell at such an angle, that its detonator broke, which was meant to set it off, and this, by the grace of God, allowed the bomb to fail its purpose.
The wooden box was shredded into a million pieces, and so was the box of potatoes. All disappeared into dust. But all the Bibles, and the books, were untouched. Only one of the books, which are still in our possession today, got a little pressure mark on some of its pages, and the whole family did not have one scratch. God did not let a mere 600 kg bomb destroy His word, nor His people.
The house to the right ended up in flames because it was hit by a firebomb, but it had no people in it, since they all sheltered in the bunker nearby. The next house was hit by the same type of bomb as Karla’s house, and it totally collapsed. Seventeen people were burnt alive under the rubble. Karla’s brother could still communicate with the entrapped neighbors, but there was no time to dig out any one of them, before the fire claimed them all.
We sincerely thank our Father in heaven for His protection and help throughout our lives. I am so glad that God protected Karla and her family during that terrible time. We can see if we trust the Lord, He will look after us.
CONCLUSION
This booklet tells only some of the experiences we had with our Heavenly Father. We could tell you many more experiences, but we hope that the ones we have shared with you will give you a good idea of what God is capable of, if only we trust Him.
I wish to close our experiences with a quotation from Hebrews 12:1–2:
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Amen.
The End.