Little Encouragement And Thrown Out Of Bed

When I was in the U. S. Air Force, I spent two wonderful years stationed near Frankfurt, Germany at a base called Rhein Main. I loved Germany and would have extended my time there as long as I could, if I hadn’t felt led by God to marry my wife.

I would visit a hospitality home for military singles on every free weekend I had. It was the gathering place of my family overseas. The house near the Taunus Mountains contained the perfect environment for a lot of my spiritual growth.

I learned to start being more open about myself and to cultivate my interest in other people. I learned to offer and even risk more of myself to try to deepen my established friendships and to make new ones. It was a life-changing time influenced by the couple that was in charge of the home.

I say all this to tell you of a surprising discovery I made about myself.

I came back to Germany from leave to the United States with the newfound knowledge that I had found the girl God wanted me to marry. I joyfully announced this to everyone at the hospitality home only to be met with stony silence. Um, hello? This is supposed to be good news here!

Their lack of enthusiasm came from the experience of many guys foolishly thinking they had found their soul mates when in fact these turned out to be unhealthy relationships. Casually, my friends began to ask an occasional question about my girl, but no real fuss was made. It wasn’t until my future wife came to visit me in Germany, and I brought her to the home to meet everyone that some credence was given to my claim.

Years later, I met with that wonderful couple after the home was no longer in existence. They had a huge extended family of over a decade of young soldiers and airmen that had passed through their care. Many are still in contact with them--so many, in fact, it’s hard for them to remember who was attending the home at the same time.

They mentioned to me that at the time I had announced I had found my future wife, they saw an immediate change in me. I stopped flirting with the girls and kept my relationships with them in proper perspective. This had surprised the couple, and the memory stayed with them over the years.

This caused me to realize that hearing from God on this important decision of who I was to marry, turned out to be one of the first permanent pieces of my life to fall into place. I became more focused on who God wanted me to be.

Without that knowledge and my obediently following through and marrying my wife, I never would have been so blessed as a husband and father. This was one of the deepest desires of my heart that God brought to the best possible reality.

--

One of the funny things to happen to me at the hospitality home was during one overnight weekend. The guys slept in the basement of the house where there were a half dozen bunks. About twelve guys could sleep there and about six girls were given a bed on the second floor.

This particular night, I was in the bed above one of my best friends in Germany. He and I were stationed at the same base.

As I was sleeping, I felt my bed rise off the supports and I started to wake up. The next thing I knew, I was tipped over and pressed against the wall by the bed I had been sleeping in. I managed to stand up as the light came on to see my friend looking around groggily. He and I immediately put my bed back on top of his and went back to sleep.

In the morning, I asked him what had happened that night. He told me he had dreamt of being in an underground cave-in and tried to push all the rocks and boulders off of himself with great effort. That’s how I was thrown out of my bed in the middle of the night. We really like to tease my friend, and this was just more ammunition.

In later years, my friend became one of a new wave of missionaries to go into the Soviet Union after their economic collapse. He had worked hard to complete his education and ordination to do this. I admire him very much.