Israel and the Jewish people have had a special place in our hearts for a very long time.
My believing mother worked in a German military hospital in WWII. There, she smuggled desperately needed prescription drugs into a nearby so-called “work camp” for Jews; medicines that were meant only for the German Wehrmacht.
The discovery of this “crime” could have cost her young life.
With this heritage, a seed of love for the Jewish people was planted in my heart at a very tender age.
My husband, Jürgen, came to know the Lord through my witnessing to him. From the very start of his conversion at University in the late ‘60s he was deeply moved by the Old Testament prophecies concerning Israel, which he saw being fulfilled in his lifetime. The Six Day War, with Israel regaining the city of Jerusalem through God’s miraculous intervention, happened before our very eyes.
So Israel has been in our hearts during all those years. Several times we traveled to Israel to explore the land and to meet the people.
During our years of child-raising and Jürgen’s very rewarding career as a computer scientist at the National Scientific Research Institute, we both were engaged in several wonderful ministries in the German body of Christ—such as when I took on the leadership of Women Aglow in Germany. But Jürgen always emphatically declared with a smile: “I am looking for a chance to have an early retirement so that I can finally do something reasonable … for Israel!” And sure enough, this chance came along!
After Jürgen’s early retirement, I gave up my work and joined Jürgen in serving Maoz. We are very happy that we finally are able to do something together! Even before we met its founders, Ari and Shira, we had received several prophetic words by different Christians that God wanted us to bless Israel in some form.
Immediately we applied for a volunteer job at a large international Christian organization in Israel. We enjoyed living and working (hard) in Jerusalem for three months. It was a truly life-changing experience for us—living in a 14-family apartment building, riding daily on Jerusalem buses (breathtaking most of the times!), working, shopping and celebrating side-by-side with Israelis who deepened our love for Israel even more!
As wonderful as this experience was, we knew that God had still another task for us. One of the reasons was that, as volunteers, we were not allowed to evangelize Israelis, yet we always have had evangelistic hearts!
So we prayed for God’s guidance again. Lord, please give us a new assignment! And then suddenly great obstacles arose—not a surprise when God is up to something new!
As we had to stand in faith for a health issue, sure enough it was at this time that Ari and Shira wanted to meet us in Frankfurt to find out if we were the people who could represent Maoz here in Germany. It did not take very long when we received confirmation in our hearts and have happily served Maoz Israel since then!
We believe strongly that Germany’s Christians need a deep revelation about God’s heart for Israel—more than ever before—especially for the eternal salvation of His people. When we invest ourselves wholeheartedly in supporting the Messianic Jews and their calling in Israel, we are one with God’s own heartbeat. We consider it a great honor as Germans to have the privilege to serve our Israeli sisters and brothers at this very special time in history—in HIS Story!
