In 1986 I went to Medjugorje.

All my friends had been there and they told me, “You must go there.”

I went there with a group of 15 friends. I said, “I will not come again if the Good Lord doesn’t want me to go.”

Then in 1998, I went again with another group of friends. There we heard the story of a lady who couldn’t get to an ambulance car, couldn’t get to the hospital. After five days, she was dead. We said, “Well, Malteser are people who do such ambulance services. We must do something.” 

We started then, so from 1999, we are doing the service there. Now we have it all the way from May to October. 

There was no medical treatment, no medical possibility. Since then we do it. It’s such a blessing for our helpers and volunteers. It’s difficult to get them. We need quite a lot. Now we have always a doctor and a nurse. They are paid. They come from Bosnia Herzegovina. Now they are organizing themselves, and they collect all the collections. We have a budget to finance the transport of the volunteers who do the transports and go to the mountains to get the people from there.

Medjugorje is a place where Heaven and Earth meet. It’s a place where there are 120 places for confession. Where in the world is there a place with 120 places for confessions in every language? 

My brother, who was also on that trip, started an organization. Since then, twice a year, with 50 pilgrims, he goes to Medjugorje by bus or by airplane, and 90% of them come back changing their life. They’ve been reborn.