Dietmar Barnikel
Salvation Experience
I think the Lord has always been after me but I’ve taken a varied path in my faith walk. While growing up in a Christian home in Augsburg, Germany, Hitler’s rise to power was the first to sidetrack my walk. My father was a pastor at our Methodist church, so our family regularly attended Sunday service and school. When I was about 10, I became involved with the “Hitler Youth.” Their activities not only conflicted with Sunday worship and study, but also it brainwashed us into the Nazi system. In the beginning, I liked it because of the sports-oriented activities, such as running, hiking and wrestling. I remember that if you did well in your studies, your reward was a picture of a German general from the frontlines. We were told that our “V-1” and V-2” rockets (leading technology at the time) would win the war for us. Of course, that didn’t happen. After the war, at age 14, I had to go to work and so landed a job as a confectioner’s apprentice. Soon I was entrenched in the restaurant field where the long hours and pursuit of my trade took me on a path away from faithful worship. At this time one of my childhood Bible memory verses gave me some comfort: Matthew 11:28 - Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.
My trail led me to work first in Germany, then Switzerland, and then Holland where I took a job on a cruise ship that circled the world. By my mid-twenties, with many travels behind me and more to come, I immigrated to the United States in New York. While there for just 18 months, I was drafted into the U.S. Army and was soon stationed in Okinawa, Japan. While there, I had Sundays off so I again went to church, joined the choir, and met a girl, but that’s another story.
After military service, like many immigrants, my path took me in pursuit of the “American Dream.” Now in my 30s, I was working Sundays again at country clubs or hotel restaurants in the SF Bay Area. I bought a house, got married, had two kids, moved to Half Moon Bay and pursued what I thought was success. Looking back at those 12 years, I see that my idols were career and money and providing for my family, but not spending the time with them that I should. Before long my life collapsed when my wife began a divorce process. I wanted to quit it all, take a camper and hit the road on a new path. Worried about my state of mind, my sister in Germany recommended I talk to Robert Wattles, a friend of hers she had befriended while he was working with the Navigators organization in Germany after the war and, who now lived in the Bay Area. This I did and he shared the Lord with me, giving me Bible verses such as Revelations 3:20: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” I realized that the meal Revelations spoke about was like none I’d ever prepared, but rather, with the Lord, it would entail mercy, grace, and forgiveness - just what I needed. Bob and I have remained friends to this day.
On April 13, 1979, I was camping alone on Mount Diablo and struggling with making the commitment to give my life to the Lord. With God’s grace, I opened my heart and when I came off the mountain, I met with Robert and told him of my new commitment. He welcomed me and, because I had nowhere else to go, he let me stay with him. He then set me up working as a chef at a Navigators’ conference center in Colorado. While working there, I participated in a discipleship program offered to the workers. I stayed with the Navigators for 3 years and shortly after the program ended, I enrolled in Multnomah Bible School in Portland, OR, where I graduated after 3 years. During that time, I was living off of savings and investments and working summers with my son, Eric, at a beautiful resort on the Oregon coast. At this time I felt the Lord leading me to serve Him in China, so I accepted an opportunity to join the Board of Directors at Educational Resources and Referrals China, a mission organization in Berkeley, CA. I was with them for 5 years. This is where I met my wife, Marty, who was Assistant Director in charge of recruiting and training Christians to go to China to teach English. In 1991 they arranged for me to visit many parts of China as a chef consultant/teacher and visit ERRC teachers to see how I could help out. This was just after the Tiananmen square incident so the hotel/tourist business was down. Nothing long-term developed for me, so I ended up going around the world again, this time by plane and train, consulting and working along the way.
After I returned from my travels, Marty and I began our courtship and in October 1993 we were married. I still had to work many Sundays but I regularly attended weekly Bible studies. In 2007, we found ourselves at 3Crosses, taking the 101 class and that’s where I learned about, and started the very rewarding discipline of a daily quiet time. This habit has really helped me grow spiritually along with the great spiritual influence Marty has had on me. Our life together is an adventure in which we challenge each other, pray and do devotions together. While at 3Crosses, we have been involved in International Student Fellowship, which has met our desire to reach internationals for Christ without going overseas. I have also been involved in CrossStreets ministry, primarily an outreach to local people in need.
Given my path through life so far, I have learned that everything is vanity if not connected to Christ. All the striving, if not God centered, is a waste. I learned through experience that even being a world-known successful chef, I was not able to share Jesus with the people I was closest to because I wasn’t doing things for the right reason. It’s so important for us to be an example of the Lord, to make connections with others by reflecting the Lord’s love, and by being a bridge to help them meet the Lord. In other words, we need to glorify Him, not ourselves. The only way to do that is to keep Christ as the center. He’s the only bridge builder between sinful man and our Holy God, and taking that bridge enables us to rest in Him.
Key Scripture
All of this leads me to a couple of my favorite scriptures, because they speak to my journey and provide me peace:
Psalm 119:105 "Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path."
Psalm 16:8 "I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken."
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