Following a Voice Across Half of Europe
Peter* is a well-known restaurateur in Germany. While his restaurant is being renovated, he takes a long holiday and says, ‘I'll be back.’ But then he hears a voice telling him, ‘Go to Moldova!’ Peter sets off, and 2,400 kilometres from home, he stops in a small village. There are no hotels anywhere nearby, so he decides to spend the night in his car. It doesn't take long before the local pastor knocks on his car window and invites the stranger to eat and spend the night in his parish. Peter goes with him.
The next morning, he wants to repay the kind offer. It turns out that the parish is celebrating an opening and urgently needs a cook! Both of them get goose bumps when Peter tells the pastor about the voice that led him here and the pastor tells him about his dream that a stranger would come to his parish.
‘It Can Only Be God’
Peter cooks for 100 people at the opening and enjoys it immensely. He continues to cook for the church, and after a few weeks he decides to give up his job as a chef in Germany and stay here. Even if it means paying the restaurant three months’ salary in compensation. The only catch: the pastor cannot hire him. But he knows someone in Moldova who runs a restaurant – and that is our partner Pastor Viktor.
Now Peter works in our restaurant. ‘We have never eaten so well,’ reports ACP project manager Hanspeter ‘Hampi’ Lehmann, who is currently on assignment in Moldova. ‘It's a whole new dimension: French cuisine, and excellent!’ Pastor Viktor asks Hampi to bring Peter a set of good kitchen knives from Switzerland. When Peter receives the knives, his eyes fill with tears: ‘No one has ever given me anything like this before – and we don't even know each other,’ he says to Hampi. ‘Anyway, things are happening here that I've never experienced in my whole life. It can only be God who arranged for me to end up here.’
And since Hampi is the only one who speaks German, it is up to him to explain the gospel to Peter. Hampi does this in detail and encourages him to consider whether he wants to accept Jesus. The whole team is committed to Peter: In a service arranged at short notice, various people tell their own stories with God. This touches him so deeply that the next day he invites Jesus into his heart. The joy of the whole team is indescribable! Now our brother in faith, who has also gone through very difficult times, needs our strengthening and accompanying prayers as he starts his new life.
* Name changed
