Goosebumps and fateful encounters
It’s November 15, 2020 and the Covid pandemic is raging around the world. Financial controller Benjamin Klaas and his wife Hannah are still in bed. Hannah is heavily pregnant with twins and it’s gray in gray outside, appropriate for the time of year. The young couple are listening to a live stream of a service at their church, Calvary Chapel Siegen. A doctor from Peru reports on the construction of a missionary hospital in Peru. Hannah and Benjamin will never forget these moments. Pure goose bumps! “At that moment, we knew where our destiny lay,” says the social education worker.
November 23, 2025: The missionary doctor from back then is standing at the front of the stage with the Klaas family next to him. They carry Elijah and Nathanael in their arms. A full auditorium and a breathlessly listening audience. “We’ve booked the flights for March”. It is as clear as day to everyone that these two have long since left the point of no return behind them.
A beautiful Saturday evening. On June 20, 2009, Philipp and Theresa are sitting in the Maria Martha Church in Bautzen. The couple have completed their training as nurses and have also completed their first year of marriage. The committed Christians were invited to give a talk about a hospital in Peru. “Looking back, Philipp Jatzke remarks: “We were deeply touched by what God had created in the Andes!”
11 years later! Philip is now in the middle of his training as an anesthetist. At night in the intensive care unit of the Dresden Heart Center, intensive care nurse Michael Mörl says a few enigmatic words. “I could imagine you in Peru!” – “Do you mean Diospi Suyana?” The assistant doctor already suspects the course of the conversation. “Yes, exactly, I worked there for over three years!” explains Mörl.
Thursday, November 27, 2025: An audience of around 150 can marvel at a family of six at the Forum Hoffnung in Dresden. The anaesthetist and the nurse are planning their departure to South America. Their four children are already looking forward to the mountains of Peru.
One day later. A rainy Friday. A missionary doctor has unpacked his laptop at the DT&Shop headquarters in Bad Bocklet. Tina Lunau, management assistant, and administrative employee Björn Wehner listen intently to a presentation. “I have goose bumps right now,” says Wehner. Then he continues: “This story does something to you!” Lunau also takes the floor: “At Diospi Suyana things were made to happen. Everything had to happen the way it did!”
A little later we take some press photos. The company donates two preheating ovens for the laboratory of the Diospi Suyana dental clinic. It is not the first donation for Peru and it will certainly not be the last.
The stories that God writes are exciting and almost unbelievable. They lead to cold shivers down the spine, unexpected decisions and radical choices. If anyone still thinks that life as a Christian is boring, they really haven’t the faintest idea. The famous discipleship of Jesus Christ is for those who overcome their fear with trust in God and set off. And they go exactly where God leads them. Would such a life without a safety net also be something for you?
