Experiences from the Life of Johannes Altwein – Part 4
MY EXPERIENCE WITH GÜNTER GÖTZE
My brother Gerhard became infected with lung-tuberculosis, which made him severely ill for many years. According to my doctor, I had been infected by him three times, but thanks to my strong constitution, my body responded quite well.
In 1950 I was approved for a four-month stay in a sanatorium specializing in the treatment of lung diseases. There were about 50 to 60 patients, most of them young men. One of them especially caught my attention. He used to walk around with his head hanging low, seemingly depressed. Somehow, I felt an urge to get into a conversation with him. At the time I was no more than 19 years old myself.
“What bothers you, maybe I can help you?” I asked him. He told me that he got a “Golden Close-Combat Badge”, which caused him severe trouble. “Do you know what it means to get a Golden Close-Combat Badge?” he asked me. Since I largely kept away from military matters, I had no clue what it meant. I learnt that one had to go through several stages to reach the Golden Close-Combat Badge. Each stage concerns many close combats in the trenches. He told me many details, which I wish to spare the reader here. At the end of our conversation, he said: “You don’t know what it means to have to live with the memories of what I have done, and the guilt, day after day!” Then he walked away slowly with his head hanging low and a pained expression on his face. My eyes followed him with compassion.
He was plagued with guilt for killing so many men during the war. Did he go to the front line voluntarily? Did he have a choice? Had he refused to be on active service in the trench, he would have been shot himself. As a young lad, he wanted to live.
We met again at lunch, so we went to the dining hall and arranged to meet and talk after we had eaten, and I read from the Bible to him:
“Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord:
though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson,
they shall be as wool.”
Isaiah 1:18
He was relieved to hear that, and I had the impression that he had experienced our Father’s forgiveness. From that time on he walked upright and was able to enjoy life again. Glory To God and His mercy.
THE COW AT THE FARM
In the early fifties, while doing missionary work, I came to a farm to offer devotional literature. From a distance I saw an almost fully-grown cow lying on the ground in the presence of two men. When I came closer, I realized that those men were torturing the cow. One of them continuously beat the cow on her head with a club, the other twisted her tail.
As a vegetarian and a lover of animals, I just could not stand by and watch this cruelty. I asked what on earth they intended to do with the cow. “The animal must be weighed and therefore needs to be led into an open cage,” they replied. Obviously, the cow had no intention to move.
As a young man who had grown up in a town rather than on a farm, I had no experience with looking after animals, but nevertheless, I asked the men to stand aside. I knelt next to the cow’s head, sent a heartfelt plea to my God and spoke very soothingly to the cow. After gently stroking her, I took her by the halter and told her that it was now time to get up. The cow slowly got on her feet and very quietly allowed me to lead her backwards into the box. “This is how animals are supposed to be treated,” I said to the speechless men, who just stood there watching.
This success cannot be based on my experience with animals. I thank my God that He made this animal docile, because the situation could have ended quite differently. Even animals feel the presence of God and respond to love.
CONFESSION OF FAITH ON THE TRAIN
At that time, hardly anyone owned a car, and as a result, many people went by train. When traveling in one compartment for some time, people started to talk to each other. I remember discussing various subjects. I liked to talk with my fellow travelers about my faith. I told them much about God and my relationship with Him. Again and again, during those conversations I turned to my experiences with my God.
While I was traveling to our yearly conference, I shared a compartment with about six or eight fellow travelers. They listened to me attentively. One middle-aged man was especially interested, so a deep conversation began to develop. When I had reached my destination and was about to leave the compartment, that man said to me very seriously: “I wish I never met you.”
He had realized that from now on he would have to change his life, and obviously he was not ready for that. I left it to God to open the seed which I had sown. Unfortunately, I have never heard from him again.
MY RETINA PROBLEM
In May 1951 I was doing missionary work in Hameln/Weser. While riding my motorbike I suddenly noticed that I had impaired vision in my right eye. I went to the ophthalmologist, who diagnosed a progressive retinal detachment in my right eye. Since he could not treat the retinal detachment himself, he referred me to the University Hospital in Göttingen.
On the morning of our departure, we had our daily devotion and read about Hezekiah, King of Judah. We learnt that the prophet had told him that he would die. Hezekiah prayed to God to extend his life, whereupon the prophet informed him, that he would be given 15 more years to live. The story of Hezekiah strengthened my trust in the Might of God. It was God who had given me eyesight, and if He sees fit, He will take it, or preserve it. I fully trusted God and promised Him, that I would not have an operation in the hospital in Göttingen.
When I arrived at the hospital, the retinal detachment in my right eye was immediately confirmed and, to make matters worse, the beginning of retinal detachment in my left eye was also noted. They told me that an operation on both eyes was inevitable, and this was the only possible treatment to preserve at least some of my sight. With an operation I would have a 50/50 chance. “Without it,” they said “you have no chance.” That was the verdict of the specialists.
Under normal circumstances, an operation would have looked quite attractive at this point, and generally I am not against operations if they are necessary. However, in this case, because I had promised my God that morning, that I will fully trust in Him and His Might, I rejected the operation. I was firmly convinced that God would not leave me alone with my problem, and that was all there was to it. It took me quite a few hours to come to this decision.
When I explained this to the doctors, they could not believe their ears. This decision was met with complete incomprehension. Even the Adventist eye specialist could not understand this. Shaking their heads, they explained to me that I would be totally blind within only a few weeks. But they accepted my decision. They gave me a pair of multiple pinhole glasses to keep my eye still. Furthermore, I was told not to make any abrupt movements, no lifting, nor bending. Since they could not do anything for me, I was discharged from hospital.
As I did not know what God intended to do with my eyesight, I had my future mother-in-law come and pick me up from the hospital just in case I would not be able to go home by myself.
It was May—springtime—the chestnut trees were in full bloom and the fields were lush and green. Should I be deprived of all that beauty in the future?
I started having severe doubts. Did I make the right decision to refuse the operation? Wasn’t it also true that God only interfered when men could not do any more for themselves? Was it the right thing to do, not to believe in traditional medicine in this case? Maybe the operation would have helped me after all? Had I been too rash in my decision, ignoring God’s will? While reasoning like that, many other thoughts crossed my mind. After some hard hours of doubt and prayer, I took new heart and stuck to my original decision to keep the promise I had given to God, not to have myself operated on.
The very next day I went to my eye specialist again, this time as an outpatient. Unfortunately, he stated that the condition of my retina had deteriorated. He could not help me, he said, and I did not need to come back again.
My family did not give up and they did everything humanly possible to help me. We had heard that clay poultices and clay water baths could be of help. Thus, they went by bike and brought masses of clay. I lay in a clay water bath for eight hours. My eyes, too, were covered with clay.
After six months, I could still see and went to the eye specialist again. “Can I examine your eye?” the specialist asked. “That’s what I’m here for,” I answered. He prepared his analysis apparatus and looked deep into my eyes. Suddenly he dropped his hands into his lap, exclaiming: “If only you could see this! … In my 30 years of practice I have never seen anything like it, nor have I heard about it. True, I can see the retina has continued to detach, but it has grown back again by itself. This can only be a miracle by God!” Then I remember how his pencil rolled off his desk and dropped onto the floor. Immediately I bent down to pick it up. The doctor was shocked, he said: “Oh no, no! Do not bend over, under no circumstances should you do these movements.” He looked at me totally stunned and said very solemnly: “I didn’t know that you have such a long arm to our heavenly Father.”
Since the scars on my right eye reached up to the middle, I regrettably became completely blind in the right eye. If I had followed the doctors’ advice and had behaved “like a slow old man”, this probably would not have happened. On my left eye the scars remained on the edge, therefore I still have good vision there.
I am over 90 years old now and by the grace of God have enjoyed my eyesight to this day, despite bending over, climbing trees, building houses, etc.
When I saw an eye specialist just recently and told him that my eyes have healed without an operation, he just told me that at my age I must have forgotten that I was operated on, because without an operation I would definitely be blind.
I just smiled at his ignorance. He knows nothing about God.
There are no words capable of describing my gratefulness. Every morning when I wake up and see, I thank God for His gift. Not a day passes by without me thanking the Lord for my miracle eyesight.
AT THE JOB CENTER IN HAMELN
Karla Beese and I married in 1952, and in October 1953 our first child was to be born. Shortly before the birth, I was back at the employment office to ask for support. I learnt from two very friendly officials that the following regulation had already come into effect in Hannover: Unemployed people, who refused a job for religious reasons, as in my case for example, I did not want to work on the Sabbath; I would consequently be denied unemployment benefits. I then gave my card to one of the officials, asking him to make a mark on my card, indicating that I was there. “From now on”, I said, “I will do without my unemployment benefit.” He was confused, saying that we were in Hameln after all, not in Hannover. I returned: “That’s right, but Hannover is only 46 kilometers away from here, and it won’t take long until that regulation will also come into effect in Hameln.” I simply wanted to spare that friendly official having to convey bad news to me by voluntarily forgoing payment already today.
“Well, how do you want to survive then, shortly before the birth of your first child?” I pointed upwards, explaining to him that there was someone who would care for me. The two officials were dumbfounded and accepted that they could not persuade me to change my mind. All that happened on a Friday.
On Sabbath evening I read the newspaper and came across a job advertisement in which various articles had to be sold by way of door knocking, from house to house. On Monday morning I went for an interview and got the job, on the spot. Seven others and I were assigned to work in several different districts. If a turnover of 30 DM (= approximately 21 US Dollars) was reached by the evening, we would earn 10 DM (= approximately 7 US Dollars) each, which corresponded to the average wages of an unskilled worker at that time. I was glad to have that job, since I did not have to work on Friday evening, nor on Sabbath.
On the following Sabbath the doorbell rang during our family worship. As we did not want to be disturbed, we did not answer the door. Later, we found a note in our letterbox with the request to call the job center on Monday. The official had personally delivered the note.
Thus, I did not go to work on Monday morning, but went to the job center instead. These two friendly officials wanted to know how I was now going to go on: “Now, did the One Above think of you?” I told them of my job as a salesman. I can still hear the official’s words in my ears as if it was yesterday: “So it is actually true, after all!” They found me a good job in an orthopedic workshop where I did not have to work on Sabbath. Even in winter I was able to finish work early and got the possibility of making up for the missing hours on Sunday morning. This proves to me, that it is always worthwhile to obey God.
BOAT DRIVING LICENSE AND MY EYESIGHT
Years later, when we lived in Hamburg, we had somewhat recovered financially. Meanwhile, we could even afford a motorboat. Even in those days it was compulsory to have a motorboat driving license. The examination included an eye test. Candidates with visual problems were referred to a certain eye specialist in St. Georg Hospital. Sixteen years have passed since my retinal detachment was diagnosed. The specialist in St. Georg Hospital asked me: “What can I do for you?” I told him that I had once suffered from a retinal detachment. “When did you have your operation?” came the routine question. I told him that I had not undergone any operation. “This cannot be, you would be blind!” he replied firmly. I suggested that he should convince himself. So, he sent me to the darkroom.
After having examined me, he admitted that obviously I did have a retinal detachment, and that there were no signs of an operation. He tried to persuade me saying: “Don’t tell this to anybody! Nobody will ever believe that!” But I contradicted him, explaining that I would always give honour and glory to God, as often as I could, because He was the one healing my eyes. The way he looked at me made me realize that he didn’t really understand what I was saying.
In any case this is more evidence for the miracle God has worked on me.
Amen.
To be continued.
Asleep in Jesus
We are deeply saddened to announce the peaceful resting of our dear pioneer brother, John Altwein, on Thursday, January 30, 2025, at the age of 93. Br. Altwein was known for his unwavering faithfulness and dedication, first in Germany and later in Australia, where he continued to uplift the cause of reform. He is the author of this article series, “Only with the Help of God.”
He is survived by his beloved wife, Karla, daughters Sonja and Ellen, and grandchildren. His legacy of service, both in writing and within the church, will live on in the hearts of those who knew him.
After moving to Australia to join his daughter Sonja and her husband Fritz Baumung, Br. Altwein and his wife were welcomed into the Toongabbie church, where he served faithfully as treasurer, committee member, and auditor for many years. His tireless dedication and selfless service made him a cornerstone of the church.
Brother John will be deeply missed by all who knew him, but his legacy of faith, service, and writing will continue to inspire us.