Testimonials

Hi everybody! My name is Henry, but at the time when I travelled back and forth to GOA, India in 1985/86/87 people called me MISCHA. Through Stefanie, a crazy girl from Munich’s posh discotheque “Sugar Shake”, I had discovered the hippie world of GOA, where rave parties, music, girls and any drugs – especially acid – were the order of the day!

Seeking enlightenment in India at the “Kumbh Mela”

During my second journey to India I went up to the Himalayas to visit one of the biggest Hindu festivals held on this planet – the KUMBH MELA. We didn’t understand much about the religion, but they also smoked dope and we felt good. By that time drugs had become a very important part of my life and I couldn’t imagine life without them. Eastern philosophy had also started to intrigue me.

Shortly before I got on the plane for my third trip to India I came across a book called “Jesus lived in India”. Though I despised the hypocritical Christianity in Germany and anything churchy didn’t interest me at all, I was fascinated by the idea that this “freak” Jesus walked around in the Himalayas as we had done just recently… Having the book in my pocket I arrived back in India and life just carried me away. Damita then crossed my path, a powerful Maori girl from New Zealand and love was in the air. Being a “white witch” she introduced me into the deeper dimension of the “New Age” lifestyle, with magic being part of her daily life. Taking drugs and going to parties was the order of the day, until that one night which changed my life.

Instead of feeling great, a heavy horror trip took grip on me

Arriving late at one party (2-3am), we still managed to get plenty of drugs into our systems, until we realised that it was a bit much… We got through the dark hours of the night until I met a strange guy in the morning with an even stranger name, who offered me more drugs. I fell for it and soon felt that something was not right. Instead of feeling great, a heavy horror trip took grip on me pulling me through a sequence of nightmare experiences. The whole party was plunged into a hellish fiction. Happy party people all around were suddenly struck in agony. Time seemed to have come to a complete halt. The start and stop of time repeated in such a powerful way that I started to shake with fear. My heart was burning almost to the point of unconsciousness. People seemingly turned into maniacs and the whole atmosphere was saturated with fear, suffering and supernatural / hallucinating manifestations. As the guy I had taken the drugs with walked away, I saw on the back of his leather jacket 3 skulls in symbolical order – symbols of the occult world.

An evil power got influence over my life

Since that night things became different. I realized the strange presence of an evil power in my life, influencing my whole being. We soon left Goa to travel up to Nepal, hoping to find some answers as to what had happened. A visit to a Buddhist Monastery though threw me into even worse manifestations of magic (telepathy). In Kathmandu Damita and I split up, as her involvement in witchcraft and drugs had then become unbearable for me.

I started to see things and interpret events around me

I left Nepal in the hope of leaving this “new strange force” and all the magic behind me. Back in India things got even more out of control and I knew something had gone terribly wrong. When I found out that a guy I knew had got himself a gun (as he wanted to shoot the DJ after discovering racist subliminal messages in his party music) I knew this was not my scene anymore. A feeling of paranoia had come into my life and had powerfully taken possession of my whole being. I knew that I couldn’t take any drugs any more as I was already close to insanity and further attempts of drug consumption had re-triggered symptoms of the horror trip of that night. I started to see things and interpret events around me, treating them as omens. I was in fear of what would happen next… I had become conscious of the influence of the spiritual world, without really understanding what was going on.

On board the jumbo back to Europe I was frightened of more supernatural manifestations. My drug life was scattered into pieces and I didn’t know how to face normal life back in Germany. Would people realise that I had driven my life into mental chaos? Things that had happened during the last months were too heavy to share with anybody. I felt hopelessly trapped in a world of magic and fear. Would I need psychiatric treatment to get out of this? I had seen people going mad in Goa, losing their sanity after only one LSD trip. (Later on I learned through the Bible that taking drugs=“pharmakeia” is actually a form of sorcery, which is completely forbidden by God! (REVELATION 21:8)

A meaningful turn in Damascus: Jesus can give you a new life!

At Damascus Airport, while waiting for my flight to Germany, I got talking to an Englishman who worked in Calcutta. I asked him for his opinion of Buddhism, as I still tried to comprehend the telepathic manifestations at this monastery. His answer was utterly surprising for me, but his words were the most important words any man ever spoke to me – He said: “Before you go any further into Buddhism, see what Jesus Christ did for us – He died for our sins and in Him you can have a new life”. Truly this was the only answer that could satisfy me in my devastating fear. The man’s plane was announced and he disappeared, while I sat there shaking with tears.

Back in Germany magic manifestations continued to appear in my life, at one point I even thought about suicide, but I had this one hope, somehow I knew that Jesus could help me in all this. It took me almost a year to get back to a normal life (on the surface), but I was unable to have normal contact with my folks or friends – I had to withdraw completely as I did not want them to be drawn into my world of superstition and symbolism. I miraculously got a good job as cabinet maker/wood worker which helped me to get my feet back on the ground. Privately though, the spiritual battle was raging as I got more and more addicted to collecting RAVE and TECHNO music.

Then the day came when I met a Christian called Ursula, on the streets of Munich, who asked me if I believed in God. Three hours later we were still talking and I knew from the first moment that she had the truth. She had real answers and things started to make sense. I learned about real Christianity, about the biblical steps of Salvation, about Satan corrupting this whole world, about the satanic influence in drugs and rock music, about the lukewarmness of most of the churches, about Jesus being alive and real to those who seek Him through the Scriptures… and I saw her humility and faith in God!

The power of the Holy Spirit drives out all evil

For six weeks I went to all the house meetings, as these people were ready to give me answers. I understood that the Bible is truly God’s Word to us and for the first time I saw the Power of the Holy Spirit working with signs amidst the believers. On Sunday 23rd October 1988, I was joyfully baptised after Robby, (the local house group leader), had bound all demonic forces that had plunged my life into ruin. Coming out of the water I was freed from the evil as Jesus promised in God’s Word!

2 TIMOTHY 2:26: “And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will”.

JOHN 8:32: “…and the truth shall make you free”.

Jesus has paid the price for our sins and bought us free of our guilt

I never found Jesus in the Himalayas, but He revealed His love and care for a sinner (like me), there and then in Damascus, when He, Jesus, through this Englishman’s words, showed me what He had done for us on the cross: Jesus has paid the price for our sins and bought us free of our guilt, if we start to follow him according to His Word. Praise the Lord for His patience and love!

Since then I’ve never taken any drugs nor had the desire to do so as living with and in the truth (Jesus Christ is the truth…) restored the joy in my life. Since my full immersion baptism any demonic/occult influence in my life has stopped and I found my way back to a healthy mental balance and a normal view on life. Approximately two years after my conversion we (our house group in Munich) listened to a talk from the New York preacher David Wilkerson. The title was “ON THE ROAD TO HELL”, and David Wilkerson spoke in depth about a vision of hell which stirred me up greatly as he described scenes which were almost identical to some of the experiences which I had during the horror trip of that night back in Goa.

It is now almost 15 years since I got baptized and received the Holy Spirit with the precious gift of “Speaking in Tongues”. I praise and thank the Lord that he has kept me on His path, and there hasn’t been one day when I regretted my decision to return to follow the Lord. We are not perfect, but yet the good fruit of training and discipleship can be seen in so many ways in our Assemblies… Our teaching is based on Scripture in every aspect and through deep studies of history (especially Christian history) we gain more and more understanding to keep us on the good and godly “path of old”. Currently my wife and I live in Scotland, where we enjoy being part of this exciting work in Christ.

In the Love of Christ.