A letter from Wilhelm Karl Adolph Straube to a fellow Evangelic about publishing and distribution of religious text.
My dear Brother Overland,
Our prayers and rich blessings rise up, and I send heartfelt greetings to you and your whole household in Jesus’ name.
Since it is customary that one introduces oneself to a person one does not yet know when wishing to enter into closer fellowship, I would also like to introduce myself to you, so that you may know who is writing to you. For I assume that you have not yet heard of me.
It has now been exactly 30 years since, in 1924, through God’s guidance and through Brother Baabel, I became a member of the congregation of God. Before that I was a fanatical Lutheran and lived in the misguided belief that no human being could be without sin and live without sinning. I also believed that if someone wrote that a human being must be holy because God is holy, then that could not be true, because I had been taught that only God alone is holy.
But those words gave me no peace. I was lying there with my wife and two sons, who were 18 and 15 years old at the time, and I wrote to Brother Baabel asking him to explain to me on what this teaching was founded. He did so — and God answered our prayers.
If living here were cheaper, then one could get by better. Here in Germany everything is so expensive, and from what we receive we give the tenth, and sometimes even a little more for the mission work. With the remaining money we try to meet our expenses. I also send small gifts to other brothers in their various works. But God be praised — for Him I gladly accept this.
Dear Brother Overland, please do not think that I am writing this in order to ask you for anything. No. I only wanted to tell you how we live here. And when I am healthy, I have much spiritual work. When I find time, I write articles and have them typed on the typewriter and send them to Brother Baabel in York, so that he can have them printed. I cannot do otherwise; I must serve my Lord in this way.
And yet, my dear brother, I have a very personal request for you — and this concerns not only me, but also the Gospel.
I have observed that through the pure preaching of the Gospel here in Germany many sick people have become healthy. They were healed, and they testify that the Lord Jesus healed them through the laying on of hands. Many have also been freed from nervous disorders and mental illnesses.
I have spoken with some brothers and pointed out to them that they are not proclaiming the whole Gospel as the Lord Jesus commanded, and as the apostles taught. “We do preach it all,” they say — but I do not believe it.
Please do not think that I am attacking the brothers. No. But the One of whom I write also looks into your eyes.
It has now been quite a long time since Brother Baabel once wrote to me that he would send me some tracts. So I wrote to him about the healings that have happened here through the Spirit of the Lord Jesus, and I asked him whether it might be possible to print something about it. But he replied that at present it was not possible to fulfil my request. I do not know whether he has forgotten it or whether he simply cannot.
Therefore, my dear Brother, I ask you in Jesus’ name: perhaps it is possible for you to fulfil this request. It is very important. I cannot keep silent — these are deeds of the Lord Jesus. You know well that such work is connected with persecution.
Please do not misunderstand me. You may write something about it yourself — perhaps according to your own conviction — and use my address.
I know that through the laying on of hands some sick people have become well.
So I ask you once more: think about it, pray about it, and if it is possible, fulfil my request. May the faithful God reward you richly in Jesus’ name — that is my prayer for you.
If it seems right to you, you may also print this short article in the Gospel paper — only the main facts as needed.
For this time I will close.
Greet all who love the Lord Jesus from us.
And may you also be warmly greeted by my dear wife.
Remain in the love of Jesus, the faithful servant in the Lord,
A. and W. Straube
Enclosed: “The Rock-Struck of the Corinthian Church.”
It did not appear in print and also not in the paper.