Reproduced in full, here, is the first testimony from Touched by God:

A Real and Present Help

Le Roche Furstenburg is a robust man in his early seventies. His pepper-grey eyebrows, his shock of grey hair, give him an immense sense of dignity. His Christian name, ‘Le Roche,’ suggesting a rock, is appropriate, for he certainly is a man of large and sturdy stature.

He came up to me after the service one morning at the Tzaneen Baptist Church. I had told the congregation about the way the Lord had intervened in my life. At the end I invited others to tell me of their experiences with the Lord. “I want to collect testimonies and put them in a book,”  I said. “This way many others can hear how the Lord is real to us today. Just like he was real to the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus.”

Le Roche put his hand on my shoulder and fixed me with his steady blue eyes. “Brother,”  he said, “I want to tell you about two of the most breathtaking experiences I had with the Lord.”

I listened to the resonant warmth of his voice. He said: “Both experiences happened within a few days of each other. It was ten years ago.”  He smiled as he shook his head. “But what happened then is still as fresh as if it had happened yesterday.”

I listened, and as I listened my skin tingled with goosepimples. I thrilled through and through to hear, once again, just how real the Lord is. I asked Le Roche to write out his testimony. I reproduce it here, just as he wrote it. It is just as I remember he told it. I remember his deep sense of conviction as his eyes held mine. This is a true story, told by a man who knows it to be true.

* * *

All my life I enjoyed excellent health. I certainly never had kidney problems. Never, that is, until ten years ago. That was when I woke up one night with the most excruciating pain in my kidneys! Pain stabbed through my back every time I tried to move. I woke Agnes, my wife. She was alarmed by my obvious agony and she called the doctor. He came as quickly as he could and did everything to ease the pain. He said I had infection in both kidneys. He gave me an injection, and more injections throughout the following days. He also prescribed tablets. But nothing helped. The pain continued for eight days and nights. It was too excruciating to stand up and I was confined to my bed. After a few days I was so weak Agnes had to help me turn from side to side.

In the meantime my brother and his family arrived, as pre-arranged, to take us to Durban. We had planned to have a holiday by the sea. But going with them, now, was out of the question. I was completely incapacitated by the pain, of course. So they left without me and my wife. It was a Saturday.

The following Sunday afternoon Agnes went to rest awhile. Left on my own, I felt impatient with my condition. I forced myself to my feet and managed to stagger around in the lounge. I was pressing both my hands on my back, trying to ease the pain. My heart was palpitating and I perspired like a race horse! I couldn’t bear the pain any longer. I felt weak and I knew I was going to collapse. I turned round to face the balcony when a voice spoke behind me.

“Why don’t you ask me to help you?”

My heart lurched and I stopped in my tracks. I didn’t turn around but I knew it was the Lord. I lifted both my hands to heaven.

“Lord Jesus,”  I said, “I know it’s you speaking. Please help me.”

The pain ceased at once!

Yes, I was completely healed — in that very instant. (To this day I’ve never had any kidney trouble. PRAISE THE LORD!)

I went to Agnes and woke her.

“Come on, old girl,”  I said. “We’re going to Durban!”

She sat up and looked at me in blank amazement. “You  . . .  you’re  . . . ”  She was too amazed to speak.

“Don’t you see?”  I said, lifting my hands again. “I’m well. The Lord has healed me!”

Well, we left for Durban, praising the Lord. We joined our family and spent a few days at the coast. It was on the way back that the second experience happened.

My brother and his family were travelling back behind us. There were three of us in my car — my wife, a young orphan girl of ten, and myself, all sitting in the front seat. We spent a few hours at Blood River where the Voortrekkers, under Charl Cilliers, fought against the Zulus. From there we travelled to Dundee, still in Natal. By the time we left Dundee it was already dark. It was a cold and gusty night and we kept the windows rolled up. I knew the road to Ladysmith very well, so I still travelled in front. The road has many inclines and declines on account of the hills and the valleys. Fast travelling is dangerous after dark.

Almost half way to Ladysmith the road makes a sharp bend. There is a river on the left-hand side, one metre from the edge of the road. I usually take this bend at 90 kph (about 55 mph), but I slackened to 80 kph. When I reached the bend I tried to steer clear of the side of the road nearest the river.

But the steering wouldn’t respond. The car went full-tilt into the river! Even as the front wheels went over the side, I called out, “Oh God, help!”

At that instant a pure white figure. my size, came through the closed window! It — or he — slid into the car and sat on my lap. He pushed my hands, which still held the sides of the steering wheel, to the bottom of the wheel. The figure then held the wheel with both hands. He drove us down the river, turning the car to the right to follow the flow of the stream.

And all the time I could see right through him! We missed huge boulders and deep holes of water. We travelled over obstacles just as if we were travelling on a tarmac road. After about forty metres he brought the car to a standstill, on dry ground. And then he left again — through the same closed window!

I just sat there, breathless and astounded. It had all happened in a moment, but I vividly recalled every detail in the sequence of events. All I could say was “Thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus.”

Now, after ten years, I’m still saying “Thank you Jesus!”

Agnes didn’t feel any fear. She didn’t realise what was happening. It was only after we got back into our flat that, as she put it, she got “the shivers and the shakes.”

The following morning I took my car — a Peugeot 404 — to the garage for a check-up. There was absolutely nothing the matter with it! Not the slightest damage was found.

If it were not for JESUS, to whom I give all the glory, I would not have been here to write and tell you about this miracle. The three of us came out of the car without a single scratch or bruise — to the astonishment of my brother and his family who were travelling behind us.

Again, I say, PRAISE BE TO GOD!

Back to Touched by God details                                                           Le Roche Furstenburg