AN ELEVEN-YEAR PRAYER WITH WORLDWIDE EFFECTS TO THIS DAY 24 June 1891: A deaconess from Stuttgart moves into a beautiful villa in Bad Liebenzell. From the “Schlayerburg”, which Mathilde von Schlayer had built from 1886 to 1888, LINA STAHL looks out of her bedroom window at the huge orchard on a small hillside. The builder had asked the Stuttgart Deaconess Institute to take over the villa as a convalescent home for the Stuttgart sisters because she was unable to pay the building costs. Now the deaconess, who was born on 12 February 1842 as a pastor’s daughter in Wippingen in the Swabian Alb region, prays that the “monastery hump” in front of her will become a “fire-breathing mountain”: From here, the fire of the Gospel is to be spread throughout the world. The “Lord” had personally given her the “commission” for this prayer: “I have the certainty from the Lord that this whole mountain will one day belong to the Lord for a special work.” But nothing happened for years - until 1896, when a large building was erected just a stone’s throw away: A silverware factory was to be built on the hill. The foundations for a large chimney were dug. ”Here comes the fire-breathing mountain” her fellow sisters mock. “No, no,” says Sister Lina. “I’m all about the fire of the Holy Spirit.” But then, one year after the start of construction, a big surprise happened: the responsible chief master builder stopped the construction: no factory was to be built in Liebenzell, otherwise the aspiring town’s plans to become a spa resort would fail. It is no longer possible to determine who instigated the building freeze. The new mayor Hugo Mäulen (1868–1955), who was elected to office in 1897, probably insisted on it. Robert Vollmöller (1849–1911), a textile manufacturer from Stuttgart-Vaihingen, took over the construction work and had the building converted into a stately country villa. The father of four children had recently become a widower and hoped that his sick eight-year-old son Hans would find relief in the Black Forest air. And indeed: the future spa resort lives up to its name, Hans recovers – and the factory owner then rents out the villa, which he is no longer interested in. Lina Stahl follows all this closely. And then she learns that Heinrich Coerper, whom she knows from his time as head of the Strasbourg deaconesses, is urgently looking for a new home in December 1901 for his German branch of the China Inland Mission, which was founded in Hamburg on 13 November 1899. The house he had rented in the up-and-coming Hamburg district of Uhlenhorst had to make way for a thoroughfare. Heinrich Coerper then looks at properties all over Germany. And that’s when Lina Stahl gets involved: A suitable property had become available for rent right on her doorstep. Heinrich Coerper hesitates: Why should he move from the cosmopolitan city of Hamburg with over 700,000 inhabitants to a Black Forest town with around 3,000 inhabitants at the time? And the rent is three times as high as in Hamburg – for a work financed by donations, this wouldn’t be justifiable to the supporters. But Lina Stahl persisted: she invited Heinrich Coerper’s wife Ruth (1875-1952) to view the building. But she also hesitated in view of the high rent. “When the Lord gives something, it’s always something good!” – Lina Stahl ends the discussion with this spiritual “word of power”. She asks their mutual and very wealthy friend Hilda von Diest (1863– 1946) to pay the majority of the rent. Lina Stahl also contributed to the rent – and so Heinrich Coerper was able to move into the Villa Lioba in Bad Liebenzell with his family and twelve “mission pupils” on 5 April 1902. Eleven years after her prayers, Lina Stahl experiences the answer to her prayers (which she actively helps with). She is also a member of the first committee and ensures that her friend Hilda von Diest buys the villa in 1905 and bequeaths it to the Liebenzell Mission when the house is to be sold. On 17 November 1924, at the age of 82, she died in the “Pilgrim’s Hut” on the Mission Mountain, which Hilda von Diest had bought for her as a retirement home. Without the tenacity of this deaconess, the Liebenzell Mission would probably never have come to Bad Liebenzell. To this day, she is a great example of what long-lasting prayer can achieve! Claudius Schillinger 9 First Youth Day O For the first time, a Youth Day with 2,000 young people is held on the Sunday before Pentecost to help relieve the very well-attended Pentecost Mission Festival. Mission – now also in Japan O The Liebenzell Mission begins its work in the land of the rising sun. Serving the sick O The “Hudson-Taylor-HospitaI” is opened in Changsha. Many Liebenzell missionaries are involved there. 1925 1927 1927
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