John the miracle of 2017

John Eichler was born in the former GDR. For love, he emigrated to the Netherlands, right through the iron curtain. He built a rich life in the Netherlands with his wife and his three children, until his heart defect caused John to have to undergo open heart surgery seven times in one month in 2017. ”I had to put everything in God’s hands then, and it’s a miracle how I came out of those surgeries.”

Germany

John grew up in a Christian family with two older brothers. ”Because we were Christians, we were different. In fact, faith did not fit with communism, if we went out to evangelize on the streets, we were sent away by the police.”

Growing up in the GDR did not go unnoticed by John. He says: ”You noticed very well that you lived behind the iron curtain. We weren’t allowed to go anywhere, everyone had to work and everyone felt small. You could really see that on the streets: people were looking down. In addition, people had many problems such as alcohol and other addictions.”

“You noticed very well that you were living behind the iron curtain.

As a Christian, John feels left out in the GDR. ”During my youth I was quite charismatic as a Christian, but I had to keep that hidden. It wasn’t allowed. Also, we didn’t concern ourselves much with politics, because if we were allowed to vote we knew there was no opposition anyway.”
John: ”You want so badly as a young boy to know what’s behind that wall. Just because you’re so controlled and you don’t really have anything to say, that thought kept coming, ‘What would it be like behind the wall?’

Anneke

Through John’s pastor, people from Holland visited their church. John gave his contact information to them to correspond with someone from Holland. ”That way I could find out what life was like in Holland, behind the wall.”

John was paired with Anneke, a Dutch girl. John and Anneke began corresponding with each other as teenagers. ”And now she is my wife. When she first came with me to East Germany and she sat at the kitchen table with me, I fell in love right away.”

”When she sat at the kitchen table with me, I fell in love right away.”

For years, John and Anneke corresponded via letter mail. Their decision that they wanted to move forward together and get married meant that Anneke would have to live in East Germany. John recounts, ”I asked God, ‘What should we do?’ God answered John, as one Sunday morning in church he heard the Bible passage, ”Therefore a man would leave his father and mother…” To John, it felt like a hint. He would leave East Germany and emigrate to the Netherlands.

To the Netherlands

”I had to apply to go to Holland, but that would have meant that I would have been seen as a direct enemy of the state. Nevertheless, I did it, and after five months I received a letter that I could come to Berlin.”

In Berlin, John got the stamp he needed to get through the wall. ”Miraculously, we were barely checked at the wall and I arrived safely at the Dutch border where Anneke’s family was waiting for me with Dutch flags.”

”Miraculously we were barely checked at the wall”

Once in the Netherlands, John was not allowed to work. He spoke no Dutch, and poor English. ”I didn’t have a dime, and we were just making ends meet. When I was allowed to exchange my East German passport for a West German passport, I could really start working. Admittedly not in my field, but at least I could pay for my family.”

When John is 24 and Anneke is 22, their son Joel is born. Two more children followed later: Laura and Tom. ”We have had a happy family life in The Hague,” John says: ”If you are open to it, life is such a beautiful journey. For example, when we still lived in a flat, we looked out over working-class houses with a garden. We dreamed about such a garden there. And later we got exactly such a house with a garden. Those are really those nods from God.”

Heart defect

John was born with a heart defect. At 14, he had surgery on his heart, and even then his faith was great. ”I believed in healing, and then told the nurse with conviction.”

Actually, John was supposed to have surgery again at age 40, but it turned out to be unnecessary after all. Finally, this operation happened in 2011, when John is 50 years old. He received an artificial heart valve and the surgery went well.

”In 2017, there were sometimes conflicts at home and similarly just before Easter, there was disagreement between me and Anneke. To get rid of my powerless feeling a little, I went outside to chop wood for a while, but that went wrong.” John fainted and lay outside in his garden for about 10 minutes. ”When Anneke saw me like that she knew: this is not good.”

Operation(s)

At the hospital, John was found to have a heart rate of 300. He had to stay during Easter. John: ”After several tests, it turned out that I had gotten a bacteria near my artificial heart valve. They had to operate, but the doctors said they didn’t know what they were going to encounter.”

John undergoes an 8-hour surgery. ”To be sure, the children had to come to say goodbye. And it was in the nick of time, my heart valve was only attached with one suture.”

A rollercoaster of surgeries follows for John. ”There were problems after every surgery anyway. Then they had to open me up again. And after the fifth surgery, I went into cardiac arrest due to lack of oxygen. As a result, the left side of my body became affected.” The doctors planned to pull the plugs after all those surgeries because it was too hard. But John’s family remained positive. ”I owe my life to them.”

After the sixth surgery, the question was whether John would recover from a seventh surgery. Still, the doctors saw life in me and performed one last surgery. ”I came to miraculously. I couldn’t breathe, talk, anything. I had to learn everything again,” John says.

”When Anneke saw me like this, she knew: this is not good.”

In His Hands

In this intense phase of operations, John relied on God. But that was anything but easy. ”Operation after operation, it only got worse. At one point I couldn’t believe anymore, nor could I pray. But the moment I couldn’t do anything anymore, neither could the doctors, I thought, ‘The only one who can do anything now is God.’ At that very deliberate point, I said, ‘Lord, I can’t pray anymore, so I’m now letting myself fall into your hands.’ However the road goes, it’s good.’

‘Lord, I can no longer pray, so now I let myself fall into your hands’

For John, this was a very conscious moment of calm in all the hustle and bustle. ”I took that further in my life. Because you can try so hard yourself, but God has all the control.”

The miracle of 2017

After a year of rehabilitation, John gradually regained parts of his old life. He did, however, have to start turning in. ”I was declared 100 percent incapacitated due to the limitations left by all the surgeries.”

Yet for John, it feels purely and simply like a miracle that he came out of it this way. ”At the hospital, I am being called the miracle of 2017. And that’s what it feels like. Because when God does things, miraculous things happen.”

And John wants to pass that along to others as well. ”Yes,” he says: ”Put everything in God’s hand and things will work out. We can get so in ourselves with our thoughts, but the more we can put into His hand, the bigger and more beautiful things can happen.”

Dit bericht is ook beschikbaar in: