I was a farmer and also a leading functionary of a very large fire brigade association. I went to church regularly but was never really a believer, unlike my wife. She prayed every day and was also a great devotee of Mary. That's why, at the end of the 90s, she took me to Medjugorje, the place in Bosnia-Herzegovina where it is said that Our Lady appears to various people. There she put a rosary in my hand and said: "This is yours". I put it in my pocket, but later put it in a drawer at home, unused. There it lay unnoticed for years, until the fateful year 2001.

In that year, our son Manfred got married on 2 September. But the joy of this beautiful event did not last long. My wife had apparently contracted flu on this day, which was so beautiful for us. The next day she had to go to bed with a slight fever and aching limbs. Two days later, she died at home completely unexpectedly as a result of this flu.

On the one hand, it was a terrible shock. On the other hand, it gave me a very strange feeling. I, who had never prayed much to God before, suddenly felt protected and carried by God. I felt someone's protective hands over me and had the feeling: nothing can happen to me. I could only explain this with the fact that my wife had always prayed for me to be protected. I took the rosary out of the drawer that she had given me in Medjugorje and began to pray with it. To this day it is my daily companion.

Two and a half years later, I broke my left wrist in an accident at work. The result was nerve damage that caused my wrist and fingers to stiffen, my muscles to regress and my hand bones to become porous.

The doctors diagnosed this as "Sudeck's disease 2 - 3". I was diagnosed with a 30 percent disability without any chance of recovery.

Then came the next shock for me: At the beginning of 2006, it turned out that my sister Irmgard had breast cancer, which was already very advanced. Therefore I left everything and went to Medjugorje again on 7 April to pray for the healing of my seriously ill sister.

When I arrived, I sat down in the church where the rosary was being prayed and began to pray it. Suddenly I felt a ringing in my ears, I got a severe headache and an unbearable pressure in my heart area. I heard a voice asking me if I was ready to die. In this situation, I said to myself, "Ok. If I have to die, I will die here, I can't think of a better place to die".

All of a sudden tears started flowing down my face and I felt that the pain in my hand had disappeared. At that moment I registered that I was experiencing my own healing. I began to turn my hand, to move my fingers, to lift my arm, to reach past the back. I watched as the swellings disappeared and the hand regained its original appearance. In my bewilderment, I prayed, "Mother of God, why am I being healed, I am here for my sister, aren't I?!" That evening I was one of the last to leave the church in Medjugorje, I thanked Our Lady there and consecrated my life to her.

My joy because of my miracle healing was unfortunately clouded by the fact that my sister passed away shortly afterwards. I asked myself why I was healed, although I actually went to Medjugorje for my sick sister to pray for her healing.

Meanwhile, three independent medical examinations have confirmed that my hand is mobile and symptom-free, although X-rays still show the disease in full. In 2015, leading doctors reported my case at an international symposium and spoke of a "phenomenon that cannot be explained medically".

This experience changed me deeply. I realised that I wanted to leave everything behind in order to focus my life entirely on God. I therefore trained as a deacon and am now happy about the way God has led me.