It was 1993, close to Christmas. My wife Carolyn mentioned that we have nothing to give to our many friends in far away places. What could we ship with little cost across the ocean? I remembered that during the year I read the Gospel of Mark to my older daughter Stephanie and, in order for her to remember the story, sketched what I read. Then came a crucial idea. What if I just took the best drawings and added an EXCEL table?

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The Klaus calendar was born. Unbeknownst to me, this idea would touch not only our friends that year at Christmas, but many of my colleagues in the world of petroleum engineers for years to come. The following year I had enough spare time on a business trip to make the pictures for the next calendar. As the years went by I was challenged by my friends’ expectations. One of those friends, after receiving the first calendar, had the thought that this could become a ministry. God really did turn it into a ministry.

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My job took me to a number of different locations on the globe. The Spirit helped me to find out where the brothers and sisters are located and often led me to unbelievers, where the calendar worked as a great object for conversation. It seems that people have been encouraged by it. After several years I took an evening class of graphic art, hoping that the seed might bear fruit, but I have learned that I may never personally see all the fruit that comes from my investments. Although the art is not for the graphic art collection in the Albertina (Vienna), the combination of God’s Word with drawings ploughs through the earth, into the hands of people unknown to me. With time I have become bolder and bolder in distributing them. This year the farthest points where the calendars have landed are: Sidney, Anchorage, and Nizhnevartovsk. The choice of topic for the calendar develops over the year. It is always something that is on my heart or something that I learned that year. Please pray that this ministry continues.