A super successful project

No profit motive – but a lot in it for the customers

Claudia Steffen, a teacher, and Lukas, a surgeon, have been running a small bookstore in Curahuasi since October 2022. The whole thing is a minus business and it is astonishing that in a country like Peru, where few people indulge in literature, 463 books have crossed the counter in half a year. In addition, you can buy gifts of all kinds and even make use of a free reading offer in the back room and get into conversation with each other. Claudia Steffen and her co-worker Judith have an open ear and they talk to visitors about the essentials of life. And now comes the best part: it is Pan de Vida (Bread of Life) a pious store.

Now you may raise your eyebrows and think, “Such religious nonsense. Why don’t you leave people alone? Faith is only an escape into illusion. The real world consists of “Money, Sex and Power!”

If you invest another 10 minutes in this report, you will read two stories that will literally knock your socks off. Get ready for a lot.

March 9, 2016: On our return trip to Lima, my son and I make a very last detour. We set foot on Colombian soil to experience Bernarda Gutierrez live for once. She is the grandmother of Claudia Steffen.

Tuesday morning 10am. A cab driver takes us to the south of Bogota. And almost on time we press the bell button. A few moments later, she smiles warmly at us. “Come in!” she says, inviting us into the house with her hand.

I look at her face attentively. She has vivid eyes and age appropriate character wrinkles. So this is the woman I’ve heard so much about.

Without the usual South American preamble, I steer the conversation directly to the 80s. Bernarda and her husband live in the countryside. Together they take care of their 11 children. That is, when he is sober, his love of children comes out. Unfortunately, her husband is hooked on the bottle and spends a lot of time with his drinking buddies. The extended extended family lives from coca cultivation in the rainforest. One could describe her husband with a number of characteristics. Religiosity is certainly not one of them.

But then the disease strikes unexpectedly. Walking is becoming increasingly difficult for him. Soon he can no longer control his legs. With the strength of his arm muscles, he still somehow keeps himself upright on crutches. The doctors’ prognosis is devastating: “Your condition is not curable, you will end up a cripple in a wheelchair!”

The sick person struggles with his fate and asks the question of meaning. “What is my life worth anymore?” The man in his mid-forties is desperate and depressed. When he meets an old regular one day, he laments his plight to him in all colors. “I’m sorry,” says his former buddy, “but there is a hope for you. I have become a Christian and I would like to invite you to a church service!”

Sr. Gutierrez never had anything to do with faith and God. But in light of his dire diagnosis, his earlier mocking sayings seem strangely hollow. That same evening, he hobbles on his crutches into the church hall of an evangelical congregation.

What happens now can hardly be described in words. For the first time he feels the presence of God. The love of Christ flows around him in a completely inexplicable way. He breaks down and cries. His grief over his botched life, his fear of the unstoppable disease, his hopelessness, all his worries burst out of him. But in those minutes, much more happens. When he gets up from the ground, he can walk normally again. God healed him. At the end of the service, he leaves the church hall overjoyed and completely healthy.

Bernarda looks into the joyful face of her husband. Apparently, he has not only miraculously recovered from his illness, but is also totally changed. From one day to the next, the alcoholic overcame his addiction. A few weeks later, Bernarda has a similar experience in the same parish. No sooner has she crossed the threshold than she is overwhelmed by the reality of God. Everything will now be new at home. Family life gains an unexpected quality. The couple now trusts in God together and takes their first steps in faith.

Who will blame the man that his thinking revolves around the real power of God. All his friends and relatives need to know. They also need a change. And they really need to get out of the drug business.

Sr. Gutierrez earns not only recognition, but also laughter and ridicule. His former speccies are annoyed by the pious drivel. Why should they get out of the lucrative drug growing business just because their ex-buddy Gutierrez is going all holier-than-thou. When Jesus spoke of the cross of discipleship 2000 years ago, he probably already had Bernarda’s husband in mind. Because Two years later, somewhere in the rainforest, the guys from the drug milieu kill Gutierrez and throw his body into the river.

Bernarda knows nothing of all this. She is waiting for her husband to return. Then one night she has a strange dream. She sees her husband washing his hands at a crystal clear spring. She stands next to him and does the same. The water washes more than her hands, it purifies her whole life. But what is it? Her husband’s face begins to glow and then two angels lead him away. A strange vision. I wonder if it might have a deeper meaning.

A few days later, she learns of her husband’s violent death. Grief bursts upon them with uncanny force, but the mental anguish cannot crush them. She knows that God has prepared her through the dream. Her husband is dead, but safe in God’s hand.

In her prime and already a widow. Responsible for 11 children and completely destitute. Bernarda kneels down at home and pours out her heart to God. As if by magic, she opens the Bible. That’s when a Bible verse jumps into her eyes, “I am a God of widows and orphans!”

Every day is a fight for survival. Bernarda needs and wants to raise her children. She seeks their help daily in prayer. On her knees she wrestles with God. The invisible man is getting closer and closer to her. He hears their prayers and sees their sorrows. The little woman rises above herself in prayer. God the merciful and faithful gives her a stamina that she would never have thought herself capable of. Praying and fasting become an important part of their lives.

More than 30 years have passed. Bernarda is a simple woman, but her faith is deep and genuine. She prayed all the family members – one by one – out of the drug business. The miracles she experienced with God could fill more than one book.

“Hermana” (sister) I say to the great-grandmother in front of me: “Your story must definitely be preserved for posterity. By Christmas, her book should be written!”

Before we say goodbye, Bernarda says a prayer of blessing for us. It comes from the heart and is full of passion. It talks to the Creator of the universe, whom we cannot see but can experience. I instinctively feel that in these minutes every sentence and every word carries weight. The blessing of this old woman is dear to me.

Outside the sun is shining. The purpose of the trip to Colombia is fulfilled. Or not yet. The book has yet to be written. It will be an honor to help Bernarda with contacts. —

February 7, 2015: For many patients, doctors are gods in white. They have received a good education and know more about the human body than ordinary mortals. Yesterday, the Swiss physician Dr. Lukas Steffen stood at the microphone during the morning devotion. But there was nothing to be seen of a God in white.

Lukas is 11 years old and takes a drag on his first hashish cigarette. It doesn’t take long and he tries LSD. With friends, he likes to have a blast and then there’s the full blast of alcohol. At the age of 14, he thoroughly ruined his life. He’s young, but already a real alcoholic, and he needs his regular dose of cocaine to function.

His life resembles a one-way street, but it gets worse. His mother, whom he loves very much, becomes ill with cancer. For two years she suffers through all stages of terminal cancer. She dies. Lukas is now 17 and he knows how brutal life can be. It’s all pointless. His drug use helps him forget.

Then his godmother invites him. She lives with her husband in the Philippines and wants to help the boy get his mind off things abroad. Luke flies off into the distance. Sun, beach, warmth. That feels good. On Sundays, his godmother takes him to a service at a Lutheran church. The weeks pass and Luke watches these Christians and thinks a lot about what he sees.

In a public parking lot, it suddenly pops into his head that maybe God really does exist. If that were the case, then he would even gladly entrust himself to this power.

A few days later he was invited to another parish. No sooner do the musicians start the first song than Lukas collapses. He cries and sobs. His crying fit lasts almost a whole hour. All his miseries, hurts, sorrows and failures stand before him. He sees Jesus Christ on the cross before him and understands that 2000 years ago the Son of God suffered for him personally. When the service ends, Luke is completely transformed.

200 patients and staff members listened to the testimony of that European in the church service yesterday morning. “There is a parable of Jesus,” the Swiss continued, “about 99 sheep and one sheep that was lost. That lost sheep was me. Jesus went after me and he found me!”

Many years have passed since those difficult youthful days. Today, Lukas is happily married and in the middle of his training as a surgeon. In the future, he wants to pass on God’s love as a missionary doctor. The junkie from back then has now become a role model for many. On the floor of a church in Asia, shaken by a crying fit, he understood why Jesus died on the cross. For him. For Lukas Steffen, the broken guy from the street. —

2023: A sympathetic couple with three children is standing outside the door of the bookstore. Their names are Nathan, Samuel and Daniel Levi. Belief in the God of the Bible means more to you than cultural property or habit. If God had not intervened in the family saga of a Colombian and Swiss family, respectively, they would not be there and neither would their children. God is a God of life. He is the true bread of life. And that’s exactly what Claudia and Lukas have named their bookstore.

Perhaps you will understand now when I say. Belief in God is the actual life-changing reality. Money, sex and power are pure illusion in comparison. /KDJ