Now I had come back to Germany. I was all alone. Everybody was against me. My parents were against me. Everybody. They thought I was off my rocker. 21 years old, a regular babyface. Unexperienced. No theological education. That's how I was. 21 and still green. I didn't officially belong to the Pentecostal movement. In the Methodist church where I had grown up there weren't any spiritual gifts. I had experienced them and didn't want to deny them. So I couldn't go on one way or the other. I was caught between both sides of the fence. That's how bad my situation was. And I didn't know what to do. So I prayed to God, and I got to know a pastor from a village church, a Pentecostal congregation, and he invited me to come. And on the evening that I was to take over the congregation the elders came together and said, "Brother Spitzer, we've changed our minds concerning this matter. Maybe it would be better after all if you went back to college and finished your studies." And then a whole world collapsed inside of me. I had never been more convinced of God's voice and working and leading than in this one matter, that I had left college, confirmed by this spiritual gift, by an inner certainty that I was doing God's will. And now the rug was being pulled out from under my feet. I was so crushed that I didn't even go back home.

And the next day, at my mother-in-law's insistence, I tried calling up the missionary over in Stuttgart and wanted to talk with her. Maybe some of you here know her – Paula Gassner. And I called her up on the phone, and nobody answered. I called again an hour later – nobody answered. I called again an hour later – nobody answered. So I said to my mother-in-law, "Aw, this is just my imagination! God speaks, God speaks, God speaks! Just like I've always said. God doesn't speak at all!" I'd had it. I'd really had it. My faith was so shaken. But God permits these things to happen so that in the end we become more stable. God permits tests. God lets us trudge through crises, and then no preacher can help you out. The best preacher could have instructed me in tongues of angels and it wouldn't have interested me at all. I was turned off inside. Never to the telephone again. Nobody. Then my mother-in-law said, "Then we'll just go there." And so I went. Actually, it was ridiculous, to go to a place where nobody was answering the phone. But we went. I rang the doorbell. Paula Gassner appears and says, "Come in. What do you want?" And so I told her what I wanted and she said, "No, stop! I've had enough let-downs with young people. They've brought more divisions into my church than blessings! I don't want to hear anything more about young people!" And then I argued right back, of course, because I had a sense of justice. I said, "Even if I've disappointed others, I've never disappointed you before, and you have to test me out first before you can say that I've disappointed you!" And it went back and forth like that for an hour and a half. And after an hour and a half she finally said, "Okay, you can be my bookkeeper. That's something you've learned. And every now and then you can help me out in the church service." And I had learned from God's Word to submit myself. And so I said, "Okay, God, if that's your will I'm willing to sweep the streets of Stuttgart, but I've got to know, I've got to know one thing, that it's your will. I'm ready to do anything, even shine shoes, but I've got to know that it's your will."

And at the very moment that I humbled myself to the point where I couldn't humble myself any further, when I was at the point where I was ready to do anything God wanted me to – I had thrown all of my own ideas out the window – at that very moment I heard somebody speaking English out in the hallway. And since I'd had a lot to do with Americans, because we once lived near the barracks, and it was also an American who brought me to the living faith, to a new commitment and to the full truth about the Gifts of the Spirit and so on, I asked, "Who's that out there?" And Paula Gassner said, "That's Harold Herman." I said, "Hey, I saw the guy once two years ago in Zurich! He's somebody I'd really like to talk to." And I went out into the hallway and then Brother Herman saw me. And I know how it is. I travel around a lot, too. Next week to Paris, then to Israel, then to Washington, and so on. When a person is always seeing thousands of people, or hundreds of people, you just can't remember them all. A lot of people that I have talked with me say, "Brother Spitzer, do you remember me? I once had a talk with you at such-and-such a place." And then it's so embarrassing when I have to say, "Well, yeah, uh, wait a minute, how was that again?" And I hope that they then tell me who they are, because it's so embarrassing to have to say, "I don't know you." But he didn't know me. He came up to me and said, "Young man, you're looking for work!" I said, "Yes." He said, "Have you gone to Bible school?" I said, "Yes." (Luckily he didn't ask, "How long?") And he said, "Then you must be the young man! Come on in and have a seat." He grabbed me by the collar, sat me down and said, "You're the man!" He'd never heard me pray, never heard me preach, almost never had seen me before, consciously. He didn't know my parents, didn't know my background, didn't know my education, nothing at all. He didn't even know anything about me. He took out his wallet and he laid out on the table the money for a plane trip for me to Berlin. It was like a dream. It was like a dream. I couldn't believe it. Just a second ago I was nothing and nobody, and now all of a sudden I was supposed to get into a plane and fly to Berlin to a big city church. It went too fast for me to take in all at once. It happened all so suddenly. And then I said to him, "How do you know? How are you so sure that I'm the man?" And he said, "Because the Holy Spirit showed me!" And he said, "I didn't want to come here to Stuttgart at all, and I was in a plane coming from Rome and wanted to get back to Berlin. And I got out of the plane at the stopover in Stuttgart because I had gotten a toothache, and Paula Gassner's nephew is a dentist." So he had his baggage checked out there. And then it hit me. The evening before I was turned down by the church. If they had turned me down a day later, I never would have met him. And then it struck me again: if Paula Gassner had answered the phone, she would have spoken with me on the phone and I never would have come to Stuttgart and would never have met the man. And she had been home all day sitting at her desk in front of the phone! There were so many leadings… Then he added, "And we had been praying that between the 15^th and 30^th of September a young man would come who would take over the work in Berlin." Between the 15^th and the 30^th of September, 1964! And that was the 18^th of September! Man, was I ever thankful that I didn't listen to men, but obeyed the voice of God instead!

And then I flew to Berlin. And he met me at the airport and said, "I'm so anxious to see whether the congregation will vote you in or not!" Uhhh! My hair stood on end, because at that very moment he went on to say that a preacher, an evangelist had already been here and the congregation didn't want to have him! And then I thought to myself, "Good grief, if he couldn't make it, how am I supposed to make it??" And it got to me. The people said, "Spitzer is arrogant." Some of the younger ones told me that's what they thought of me. But those were younger ones, not middle-aged people. There were hardly any young people here at all, just two younger people. Brother Kretzschmar and Annalise the organ player were the only younger people here. Jürgen was still just a little boy back then ten years ago. And then I came in and said, "Dear God, help me! Dear God, help me!"

The room here wasn't like it is now. Back then it was just an old black shack. The railing out there which is now up a story higher was right down here at the entrance. And the pigeons made nests there and there were all kinds of pigeon feathers hanging out of it. Up there was a kind of Punch and Judy show back from the cabaret days, and a cardboard pulpit. The seats were nothing but black boards that were all split down the middle and the women were constantly tearing their nylons on them. It was really a wacky church, let me tell you!

And I came in here, you know, and Brother Herman can tell such exciting stories. (He has a gift like mine!) He told me it was a big city church right downtown at Nollendorfplatz. Subway, bus, and taxi all right at the door. I mean, that's true, that's all true. But when he describes it, you know, you see a huge church building with five steeples and some butlers standing out front handing out hymnals. That's what I had imagined, you know. And then I came up the stairs here and said (I called that outside the chicken coop) – then I came here inside and took a look around. Practically no children. Maybe ten children in the Sunday School. Two young people. And the rest were the people that had been converted during the crusade. They were converted around the age of 40, 50, or 60, because the young men were killed in the War. It was the post-War period. So it was mainly the older and middle-aged people who were converted. In the meantime the middle-aged people had grown old and the old people had grown ancient. And so I came in here and saw nothing but black scarves and black coats. The old people of ten years ago weren't as well dressed as they are today. Today they take care of their looks. But back then it was still like that. And then all the black benches and the Punch and Judy theater up there. Only a third of the lighting that we have in here now. There were only vents here back then. No ventilation – just a little fan that was suspended from the ceiling and made a constant racket during the services. It was really far out. I was a little taken aback at first, but then later I was happy after all that God had brought me here. And there I was.

Then Brother Herman said, "So, here's the church. The congregation has voted you in. You're accepted. Now go to it. Good-bye. I've got to go to Formosa." So there I was. I had no idea. Really, if God hadn't helped me – and that should be an encouragement to you, no matter who you are. One of my favorite verses in the Bible is, "God chose what is nothing in the world to shame the wise," to shame those who think that they are something. Everything that I have experienced in my life has been God's grace and nothing that I've earned myself. I had barely arrived here when a general's wife died, the wife of General von Schulzendorf. I was petrified. I'd never been to a funeral before, except when I was a little kid, and I'd never held a funeral service before. I had no idea at all how to do anything like that. I didn't have anyone I could consult with, and so I just sat there scared to death. And then I heard that 350 people were going to show up at the funeral and that the son, a colonel in the German army, had made a special trip and had flown in from South Africa. (He was an exchange student there). My heart fell down to my feet. And I said, "God, what am I going to do now?" And then I sat down in despair and prayed. And then I took out a telephone book and started looking around in it to see if I could find anything related to churches, and the first thing that struck my eye was "Evangelical Free Church," Pastor Krischig in the Bismarckstrasse. And then I sat down and timidly picked up the receiver and dialed the number. "Yes, good day, is this Pastor Krischig?" "Yes." "Yes, I have a rather unusual request. I'm a pastor but I don't know how to hold a funeral!" And Pastor Krischig's heart was in the right spot, and he said, "Yes, okay, young man. Come on over, and I think we can take care of it!" And then I went over to Pastor Krischig's place on Bismarckstrasse in the Baptist church there, and he sat down with me for an hour and told me how to conduct a funeral service! And he said, "Okay, and then you put on your robe…" And I said, "I don't have any robe!" And he said, "Okay, then you go somewhere and buy yourself a black coat. That's how I started out, too." So I went out and bought a black coat, and then I stood up there, a 21-year-old boy in a black coat. And the coffin was brought in and the people poured into the church. The doors were kept open because many other people were standing outside. And then I said, "Dear God, now give me the words!" because my own words just died on my tongue. And then I started preaching, and while I was preaching the anointing came, the anointing of the Holy Spirit. My whole body started to vibrate, but not out of fear, but through the power of God. And I preached and blasted away like an old experienced general. And afterwards there was a huge response from this funeral, that people came, even a high-ranking officer. And he said, "What you said has spoken to my heart so much."

And so it went on, step by step, over the last ten years. The remodelling, the Jesus Movement with its joys and sorrows. And then what God's doing now. And then God gave me a couple co-workers, Wolfgang, and I know that all this has just been a beginning. When I came to Berlin, Brother Herman said something to me that almost knocked me off my feet. Brother Herman said, "You won't see much in the first six years of your ministry. It takes six years before you can be built up into a man of God anywhere." I couldn't imagine that because in the Methodist church where I had come from the rotation takes place after six years at most. And I said to myself, "Six years!" And sure enough, I was here for six years and then God finally slowly started working. In the seventh year the Jesus Movement started. I know that that was only a beginning of what God is going to do. I know that many have fallen away from the Jesus Movement, but they're not far away. Like an experienced fisherman says, "The hook is still in." I was converted when I was twelve, and then for four years I fell away. It happens like that with so many people, that they first run away, and God says, "I've got lots of line. Run along all you want!" And then he reels them all in again. And recently several people have come back and have asked for counseling with me. Some of them have gone on to Bible school. From the Jesus Movement we have about ten people in Bible school. In the first six or eight years of my ministry we didn't have a single person go off to Bible school. (Wait a minute. Yes, we did. We had two: Annalise and Willi. They're preaching in West Germany). But so many. Peter Meder who's coming next week, was all fired up at first, and then he fell away. And now he's with it again. So God gives them plenty of line, and I know that many of them are going to come back, and God is going to do something brand-new in their lives.

But God is going to do even more. God is not only going to be speaking to people on the streets. There's something happening now that wasn't here a few years ago. The ÜGB has gotten together. All twelve charismatic churches in this city now come together regularly once a month and share with one another. Now the first combined torch parade is coming, the first combined street demonstration. Something like this wasn't ever possible before. Before we had youth meetings and services, but no one got actively involved. No one went out into the streets, but God lets it all grow up, gently and carefully. And it's going to grow and grow, and you're going to remember this. God is still going to be doing big things this year, but in the next few years the Christians in this city who are really born again are going to get together. And they're going to give a powerful testimony to Berlin. And Nollendorfplatz is going to be a part of it. I've never pushed myself, never tried to steal the show, and I've always said, "Jesus, I belong to you, and you do it." When pastor Kitziger came here, a pastor from the State Church, he said, "I don't like this. You're always preaching to the same people. You've got to be heard on the outside, and we've got to arrange something." He wanted me to write out leaflets, and he wrote to the Bishop and to some other people, and was always trying to send me somewhere. I told him, "That won't work. Just let it alone. That's nothing but human bungling. God will put me where he wants me, because God is my boss. He leads me." When the Jesus Movement started here, Bishop Scharff invited me over to talk with him. I sat together with him personally for 45 minutes and we had a talk. The man sat across from me with tears in his eyes. It was God who led us through. I've learned to be at least partially – I mean, no one is perfect – but I've learned to make myself partially independent from men, from human opinion. We have to do God's will. At the beginning of my ministry God showed me that I was going to preach all over the world to thousands of people. I didn't know how that was supposed to happen. I told my father about it and he laughed at me. And he said, "You? You can't even form a proper German sentence!" At that time I still stuttered. Back then when God showed me this, I was still a stutterer. I was a boy full of complexes and problems…