… these were our life goals which we shared to each other when we talked about our common future as husband and wife.

Exactly on March 21 in 1986 we reached this goal when our second child was born. I was 29 and working in a bank, my wife as a teacher, we owned a car and a house.

One month later our vision for our life was turned upside down.   The accident in Chernobyl happened. Our daughter was no more allowed to play in the sand in the garden, we had to throw away all our vegetables and fruits of our garden.

We were shocked and asked ourselves what kind of future will our children have?

We started to work for anti atomic organizations, I joined Greenpeace, my wife the organization mothers for a future without nuclear power.

We wanted to change the world but we did not find peace in what we were doing. So we ended in new age and meditation – where we tried to find inner peace.

Then one of my colleagues started to leave Christian leaflets on my table. I read them with interest. One day in the morning after my meditation I read an article in a regular newspaper. It was about Pirmin Zurbriggen, a Swiss world champion in skiing. He shared about his life and said: I pray in the morning and in the evening and In know I need God in my life because without him my life would be chaos.

I thought when one of my idols need God I will also try it out.

So on the 4th of February 1987 I surrendered my life to Jesus. There was no earthquake, no lightening from heaven but I felt deep peace in my heart.

I started to read the bible, which I got from my colleague. She also invited me to her weekly bible study. My wife saw the change in me but she called me a fanatic because there was only one topic in my life – Jesus Christ and the word of God. After three months I needed a new bible because my first one felt already apart.

Some years later I thought: when I am 50 then I want to become a development aid worker. But God had other plans. In 1993 He called my wife and me to work for a Christian organization called Agape Austria. I was not 50 – I was 36. Until today we never doubted that this was a wrong decision.

God changed our lifes. He changed our thinking. He changed our vision. 

Peter Heinz