Switching gears - grateful for the time with Matthias and his family

Yesterday I arrived in Austin, Texas, after spending a week with Matthias Beyer and his family. Today I spent a lot of time dawdling, reading and drinking good coffee - the father of the family owns the place Café Medici.

I look back with gratitude on the days I spent with Matthias and his family. I enjoyed simply spending time with him and his family, being present during therapies and sharing life.

And it was just nice to have the time. Communicating with Matthias is still exhausting for him - he often can't think of the right words. But it was wonderful to talk to him, to pray or to experience how intensely and attentively he listened and counted along. Matthias has always been a very good listener - but now his intense gaze, his handshake, his „wow“ when I told him something moving was particularly profound.

A week is too short to notice any great progress - unless miracles happen - but I had the impression that his speech had already improved in these few days. At my request, he told me the story of the prodigal son. Of course, he didn't have some of the words like „repentance“ at his fingertips, but „walking a new path“ is a fitting description. And at the end, when we said goodbye, he said: „I'm curious to see what's going on!“ (he meant „what's going to happen„) the next time we see each other. “I'm excited" is pretty cool vocabulary. I'm excited too.

One of the best moments for me happened almost incidentally. Matthias' right arm had been paralysed since the stroke - a few weeks ago, after an evening of intense prayer for him, he was suddenly able to move his arm again and bring his hand up to his nose. The continued mobility of the arm was something we prayed for again and again. I kept massaging his shoulder and rejoiced with him when the hand went up to his head. On the last day, we were sitting together, talking a bit - when he suddenly lolled up and his arm went way over his head. I could hardly believe it - and I was just delighted.

I look back on these days with gratitude - and look forward to those that lie ahead - and am excited to see what will happen!