Recently an Indian friend, who has known me for the past twenty years and with whom I shared most events of my life frequently and in detail, introduced me to a group of college students. He presented my life‘s history so garbled and distorted, and my achievements so exaggerated that I determined right there and then to write, in brief an accurate history, to escape future embarrassments and the accusation that by silence I have actively endorsed such a deception. 

I was born in Aachen, Germany, November 21, 1935 the 7th child and 6th son of a roof maker of less then moderate income. I survived the 2nd World War - a feat many German children of my generation can not boast of... I graduated from school June 1951 at grade 8 and became a carpenter’s apprentice. 

One year after completion of my three year apprenticeship I set out for India on a bicycle - June 6th 1955. It took 6 months to reach Karachi, Pakistan where I worked as a carpenter for another six months. I journeyed by boat to Bombay and from there by hitchhiking back to Germany where I arrived October 1956 without cycle as it fell apart in Karachi. One and a half years later May 1958 I immigrated to Montreal, Canada. 

My unquenchable wanderlust which marked my teens followed me into the late twenties. I crisscrossed the North American continent once by hitchhiking. The next journey by car found me in British Columbia where my car broke down. After trying my hand at picking apples at some places, I finally ended up with a Pentecostal carpenter in Kamloops British Columbia, who persuaded me to go to church that was November/December 1964. About a month later I accepted Christ and it took about three months before I got my first faint notion of what that meant. 

September 1965, at the age of 30, I found myself at Western Pentecostal Bible College, North Vancouver. A year later I opted for the newly introduced 5 year diploma in theology program. April 1970 I graduated from Bible College. 

The same year I joined Wycliffe Bible translators. After two summer semesters of linguistics at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA, and a six months of Jungle Training Camp, I went, January 1972, as a member of Wycliffe to Nepal and after several months there to Nagpur, India. We were scarcely introduced to a tribal group, the Mawchis, when September 1974 Wycliffe withdrew its personnel and, against my desires - me. Several months later, May 1975, in Dallas Texas where I had gone for further training, it was suggested to me I resign from Wycliffe as there was no possibility for me to return to India with them - the only place I felt called to serve. 

During the next few months I prevailed upon God, with loud crying and many tears, to let me return in India. I did as an “Independent“ January 1976 with the intentions of working on the Bible translation for the Mawchi people. About a year later I found myself with several poor children which/whom my co-workers and I took under our care. As of today we have some 850-900 children.  

The Bible translation (Mawchi New Testament) was completed sometime in 1989. 

October 1981 some of our young people and I formed a Society called Prem Sewa Shikshan Sangh (Ministry of Love Education Society). By April 1982 we bought an 18 acre piece of land at the outskirts of Nagpur and built our first home. We called it “Kalpana Bhavan“ the “House of Imagination“ . . . The number of kids increased dramatically. May 1983 I became affiliated with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. I received my ordination March 24, 1996. 

We opened our primary school at the Nagpur compound in 1987, which has “blossomed“ into a Junior College (Grades 11 & 12th). We also have another boy’s home in Western Maharashtra which has some 100 boys, and in the early l990s started a girl‘s home on 5.5 acre land in that same area. The girl‘s home has some 250 girls and its own school. 

The “New Hope Church“ that meets in our compound is not strictly speaking our church except that most of its members are from the society including the pastor and I - I do most of the preaching. Some friends and I formed it several years ago and - against all hope and predictions - it survived und is growing. 

January 1995 Yohan A. Raut a former student and my protege became president of the Society. He was 25 years old. For the next few years we worked side by side which made it difficult for him, you cannot have two power centers in one organization. As the Society becomes too complex for one individual he works with the board and a Core Committee to handle the daily tasks. 

“I yearn for one more last fling; one more adventure

ere night comes finally and irrevocably