Eventually divorce seemed to be the only way out.

Our sons were 6, 9 and 11 years old back then and they suffered from the break up of our family relations. As parents we tried to cover up what problems this created for our sons.

The rest of the family was rather sceptical at first, but as time passed we were intrigued and more open about the word of God and salvation through Jesus Christ. Fortunately Thomas kept strong ties with his divorced dad, who was also involved in this process. One after another of us accepted Jesus and took hold of God’s saving hand in Christ .God led us into a process of healing and restoration. One year after Thomas’s return all of us got baptized as a sign of our commitment to Jesus Christ.

My wife and I knew, that something fundamental was still wrong. Since we were still divorced, it seemed impossible for us to get used to married life again. Yet certainty grew within us: God wanted us to re-marry and He wanted to heal our family. Finally after having been divorced for 10 years we dared to take this step. Full of anxieties we felt like Peter who stepped out of the boat just trusting Jesus that the waters would support him. And God did not let us down. After our step of obedience, he gave us a new love for each other. We celebrated a wonderful 2nd wedding 10 years ago as we renewed our wedding vows.

In these 10 years of our new marriage we were able to experience how God helped us through. Although we were still the same people as before and our behaviour patterns and problems had not disappeared but remained a constant challenge, we got help through counselling and God healed our wounded hearts deep down. We discovered the power of praying together time and again. When there seemed to be walls between us in our relationship, we prayed together and brought our needs before the throne of God. These prayer times made the dividing walls tumble.

Today we can witness that by the grace of God we have an exceptionally good marriage and we are able to be an encouragement to many others.

Now, aged 61 and 65, we have received God’s call into mission in Albania. Having been there a few times in trial outreaches  we are now entering into a new project “New Dimensions”, in partnership with the Reichert family and are again “walking on water”. It is our desire to serve Albanian believers as spiritual parents, strengthening their faith and helping them to be set free in their God-given calling.