Vienna, Austria: Michaela’s faith journey

One day four years ago, I entered a cosmetic boutique near our home in Vienna, Austria, to make an appointment for a manicure. Despite the intense pinks and yellows decorating the room, I still noted a calm, soothing atmosphere. That was Michaela’s job as the boutique’s owner, after all: to make clients like me feel at peace.

But when I met Michaela that day for the first time, it didn’t take me long to discover that she herself was not at peace. She had many opinions and questions about God and life.

Maybe it was her friendliness, her honesty or her searching spirit, but almost immediately I felt a bond between us. When I returned for my manicure, she and I discussed some of the books she had read. Michaela was transparent, and I could see that she was very accepting of various philosophies. She was adamant in her belief in God, but added, “I don’t believe in this Jesus.”

A Childhood Faith

I understood this strong belief in God when she later told me about something that happened when she was 5 years old. She and a friend were swinging on a cable over a frozen pond. Michaela lost her hold on the cable and fell through the ice about 7 meters from the edge of the pond. She was completely dressed in heavy winter clothes — coat, hat, mittens and boots.

Miraculously, she walked on the bottom of the pond, being “gently pushed,” she said, until she came up in an opening in the ice. She said she did not recall being afraid — only knowing that she was going to get out.

Michaela carried with her that sense of God and His care for her into her teenage years and beyond, but she understood nothing more about Him. She said that growing up, she had a consciousness about how life should be lived, as well as questions about the rules and methods of her country’s religion. She thought praying and trusting God all those years was enough, but she felt something was not right, she told me.

Starting a Journey

During the time that Michaela and I were beginning our friendship, a company consultant from Paris visited her boutique in Vienna. My husband Tom and I had invited Michaela over for dinner that night, but she had to cancel so she could meet with Jasmine, the consultant.

Jasmine, herself a Christian, encouraged Michaela to make sure she rescheduled her dinner with us for another time. She told Michaela, “When you don’t come to Jesus, He will bring someone like the Suiters to you.”

When Michaela finally did come to our home for dinner, she had many questions. Those conversations continued over many more manicures, pedicures and facial massages, as she and I shared our thoughts about the Christian life and the Bible.

A year or two later, Michaela began reading the Bible. Although she began reading in Genesis (despite our attempts to get her to start with the Gospel of John), she read it like it was a novel. She read it everywhere — even at family gatherings, which her relatives thought strange and urged her not to read it.

Michaela told me she did not understand what she read. She did not like the God of the Old Testament, but still she kept reading. She came to our home with questions about this God of the Old Testament, hoping to understand some of the difficult “whys” of biblical history.

“Tom never acted like my questions were strange or wrong; he answered them all without anger. He answered them in a positive way. This was a new way for me,” Michaela said with a smile.

One cannot understand all the wars and the killings of the Old Testament without reading the New Testament, Michaela said. “It was so clear. When I finished the book, I found that Jesus was already there — in the beginning.”

Seeking and Finding

During the months she was reading through the Bible, she also attended a “Christianity Explored” Bible study in our home. She studied the workbook and answered the questions all at once, instead of doing it week by week. She says, “I wanted to know all the answers quickly. I had to know if all of this was real!”

Michaela cannot pinpoint a specific time when the Lord entered her life. She asked forgiveness and prayed the stated prayer during a Bible study she attended at our home, but for her, coming to Christ has been a process.

“It was happening quietly and surely. I just knew that He was the answer to all my questions and all my searching, and I began to understand that it was Jesus who had died for me and would help me to know God in a more intimate way,” she recalled.

Michaela explained why she did not believe in Jesus for these many years. She had believed that there was only One God and she was afraid to do anything bad against Him. She felt that if she believed in Jesus, that would be against God.

“I have had many fears; I lived in angst. Now I am no longer afraid. I believe in Jesus; He lives in me, and I know that He will take care of me. I have peace.”

Posted by Barb Suiter on Apr 11, 2008

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