19March2024

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What are Vitamins for the Heart? Additionally to the physical help for us the spiritual support has likewise a big meaning. ‘Vitamins for the Heart’ is the title of series in which we publish new articles monthly. The Vitamins are compositions out of texts, which we are friendly allowed by the authors to present on our webpage. Because we had many positive reactions to the vitamins we also want to present them on our webpage and hope that they will also bring many others a big pleasure.

Vitamins for the Heart

Helpless, but not Hopeless

A Personal Easter Story of Resurrection from Disease
by Lenka Schmidt:
Sometimes we do not fully realize how much we love someone until we almost lose them.

At first, for our family the corona virus seemed like some distant disease somewhere far away. Then suddenly it landed close to our doorstep! The first serious case was my 80-year-old aunt in a nursing home who, thank God, overcame it! Then my very nice aunt Iva got it, but unfortunately, she did not survive it. This was followed by the infection of my brother’s entire family, and eventually my parents. The battle intensified. How much we prayed!

My brother’s family gradually got over the sickness; with my parents, it was worse. My father had to go to the hospital because he could not breathe properly anymore. He was in the early stage of pneumonia. He still looked good, ate alone, walked around a little bit and now and then needed oxygen. Then suddenly things changed and he ended up in the ICU. A few days later, he was in an artificially induced coma, on a ventilator. His condition became more and more serious and the doctors no longer gave us hope. Although my mother also had to go to the hospital, fortunately she soon was released to go back home again. Her condition has improved greatly since then.

These have been extremely difficult days for us. I think I’ve been through every stage of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Sometimes I felt a tight pain in my chest. I bargained with God. I was mad at the whole stupid COVID situation and sad that I couldn’t be with my parents in person. On top of it I wasn’t feeling well myself and had trouble breathing. When the news from the hospital wasn’t getting better, I began to feel hopeless. I had reached the point of acceptance that I would probably have to say goodbye to my Daddy here on earth.

Despite everything however, I personally felt God’s presence, love and comfort. Although I must admit, sometimes I gave Him a piece of my mind! But I know that it’s O.K. with Him, that He knows my heart and understands how I feel and prefers that I am honest than to pretend to be so good. I held long conversations with Him especially at night when I couldn’t sleep. He always comforted me. Once I felt that He was telling me that He is in the hospital with my Dad and that He is taking care of him. And when it looked really hopeless, He told me that Daddy would get over it, but that the recovery would take a long time. The next day the hospital told us more bad news and I believed them more than God.

At that time, a friend sent me the following: „I believe there is great strength and comfort in prayer. It is not a means to ‘move‘ God, but it is a possibility, an invitation, to be closer to Him and to bring others to Him. Somehow it changes us when we think about others more than ourselves.“

How deep this truth is! These kinds of difficult situations deepen our relationship with God. They restore our confidence that He is with us even in the worst situations and that even if we are not in control, He is, and He loves us very much, no matter what will happen. It’s a genuine experience of God’s love and care.

Since my Dad wasn’t the first to get sick in our family, we were a little better prepared and sent out even more prayer requests than we did before for my aunt and others. Some of our close friends even passed our prayer requests on to others. All over the world people prayed for him ... until God did a miracle!

The very next day the hospital told us that Daddy had been taken off the life support system and that he was breathing on his own! It will still be a struggle, but we won’t give up. Jesus is still the same. And just as He did miracles for people in the Bible, he can do them for us! Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (Heb 13:8) How extremely grateful we are to Him, to all the doctors and nurses who took such good care of him and to all those who have continued to fight with us. God bless them all!

What else did we do besides praying constantly? We memorized verses from the Bible on the theme of healing and “reminded” God of them. Especially these two: Jesus Christ heals you and He gives power to the faint and to them that have no might he increases strength. (Acts 9:34a, Isa 40:29)

We also strengthened our faith by reading Christian literature and listening to various sermons. Sometimes we were fasting. Wolfgang skipped some meals, I didn’t eat sweets for a while and stopped watching my favorite TV shows.

At one point, I felt I should start thanking God in advance that He had already healed my father, even though we did not yet hold the physical proof of the healing in our hands. It was another thing that we believe helped.

Another crucial thing which is also a principle of how God works, was to “give up” in the sense of putting the whole situation in God’s hands, no matter what happens at the end. Every time we put something we really want into His hands, He’ll open His arms to us. That’s why it takes a lot of courage, and sometimes we do it with bated breath, but it always frees His hands to do what’s best for us. And in time, if we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that He just knows better than we do, though sometimes it takes us a long time to find something good in it.

The one who had the most faith all along was probably our daughter Anissa. It was a big lesson for me to see how children just trust. In her mind it was simple: „Either God will heal Grandpa or take him to Heaven. In either case he will be happy!“ I don’t think she could relate to our worries. She once said: “Maybe God hasn’t healed him yet, because when it gets worse, it’ll be a real miracle when he’s healed!“

A few days after my father was brought back from induced coma and was better, the attending doctor told me on the phone that a few days ago they thought that my Dad was going to die! I could tell him that a lot of people were praying for him and that it worked.

The only one who can work miracles is God and He gets our biggest thanks! We feel for those whose loved ones have not recovered from their illness. We don’t know why someone gets better and someone else doesn’t, but we can be sure that God is with those who are sick and with us when we are full of pain. He’s very close to us and is always holding us.

Every Easter we remember Jesus’ resurrection. Let us not forget that His power to heal and perform miracles still applies to us at this present time.



The adventure of two angels and their baskets
As retold by Lenka Schmidt

One day God decided to send an angel with a big basket to collect prayers from people. He flew through all the countries. He went to the poor and the rich, the happy and the sad, the hungry and the satisfied, the children, the young and old, women and men. He visited prisons, orphanages and homes for the elderly, hospitals and institutions. He was in villas, flats, houses and slums. He made sure he didn’t forget anyone!

He returned to Heaven to the throne of God with a basket full of wishes from the people on the earth. He collected everything they asked for, whether it was big things like the recovery of the seriously ill or something that might seem tiny. But nothing is tiny for God! He takes seriously everything we ask for, and it makes Him happy when we ask for help. He is our heavenly Father, and we are His children and he cares about us so much! God was happy to accomodate his children on earth, and He did His best to answer all those who asked for something.

When another very kind and sweet angel saw all this, he asked God if he could also go down and collect all the thanks from the people. He loved God very much and wanted so much to make Him happy. It didn’t go unnoticed to him how much work and organization the many prayers required. How many angels had to be involved in the work, how much and hard they worked to bring certain people together, to be able to say nice things to each other, to help each other, and so on.

So this angel set off. He flew all over the countries from North to South, from East to West. He went to the islands, to the high mountains, in the hot deserts, on ships and airplanes, he was able to get everywhere and visit all the people who asked God to do something for them. But when his time came to fly back to Heaven to the throne of his dear God, his heart was heavy. Will he have enough courage to show Him his basket?

When he stood before the throne, God leaned over and looked inside the basket. He found only very few thanks in there. A shadow flickered across His beautiful loving face, sadness filled his eyes, perhaps even a tear appeared in them? He put so much into answering human desires and so little gratitude was in the basket.

The angel was sad, too, and then he got a wonderful idea! He’s gonna send this story to the people on earth so that the next time God does something beautiful for them, they will remember to thank him. So the next time you are happy, don’t forget to share it with your heavenly Father! Together, let’s fill the angel’s basket till it overflows! Are you in? May God’s love be with you everywhere you go! “In everything give thanks.“ (1 Thes. 5:18)

Copyright © 2021 Aktive Direkt Hilfe e. V.



 Along the dirt road are a few small stands that sell dried fish and sometimes some vegetables and fruit.

Mushapo - A village portrait

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