The Diospi-Suyana-Film tips the balance
In the Christian Family-Centre in Fulda. On Saturday afternoon at this point I wrote about an audience interested in the story of Diospi Suyana. I had absolutely no idea that the missionary hospital in Peru played an important role in the founding history of this Centre. Two days later I possess a personal experience report and some newspaper cuttings. This is the story:
2004: A group of young Christians want to impact the city of Fulda. They rent some rooms for which they sign a five-year contract. They go full risk, since the small group has to pay the rent month by month.
2008: The German Government offers substantial financial incentives for projects which plan to offer childcare. This would be a worthwhile task for the “Freie Evangelische Gemeinde” (Free Evangelical Church), which has now grown to 33 members. Plans are made and the financial volume is estimated to be €1.2mio. At this point doubts start to arise and the atmosphere in the team is strained even more, when they discover that the payment of the financial support will be delayed by an indefinite time. Doubts abound: money, helpers, a limited company and a management board are lacking. From a human perspective this idea cannot be financed and is therefore, logically, not doable.
At the church meeting in the Spring of 2008 it is all or nothing. Pastor Gerhard Senninger and his wife Daniela believe in God’s limitless possibilities. They had just watched a DVD on the founding of the missionary hospital in Peru and decide to show the report of the “Hospital of Faith” at this meeting. The film hits home: “A real movement was set in motion in the church and some of the strongest critics voted ‘yes’.”
The following months were a long struggle for all of those involved. At the end of all calculations and number crunching a financial hole of €0.3mio remained and the project appeared to have failed once and for all. Was everything in vain? Do all the funds and donations now have to be returned?
Out of the blue a private sponsor promises to donate €0.26mio and three days later the notary contract is signed.
Spring 2009: Building Engineer Udo Klemenz is invited to speak at the small church and reports hot off the press what faith experiences Diospi Suyana has made in recent times. After the service he visits the newly-laid foundations of the Centre in the open countryside. Daniela writes: “This was a huge thing for us!”
For eight years now the Christian Family-Centre is doing a fruitful and blessed work in the city. Only those in the know can remember those days full of insecurity and worry, when doubt and self-doubt had almost won the day. But today the multi-purpose building is a monument of faith in the Fulda-Galerie city district.

