1:22:39 – 1:24:05
„Když se mně ptali, proč cestovala po těch různých stanicích, když to bylo zakázané nebo nebylo to povolené. Řekla jsem - Protože je ještě jedna vyšší autorita než ta státní, je to autorita Boží a podléhají jí všecky králové všecky knížata a všecky vlády. A já především, protože jsem dítě Boží, musím poslouchat, co mě říká Pán Bůh. Když mě vede k tomu, ať zvěstuju evangelium, tak prostě jdu a zvěstuju evangelium, ať je to státem povolené nebo nepovolené. Takhle byly otázky všecky cílené na nezákonnost mojí služby, ale já jsem se pořád hájila tím, že jsem pod vyšší autoritou a že vyšší autorita mě klade určité nároky. A já počítám s rizikem. A nemyslím si, že by mě za to naše vláda chválila, ale já prostě jsem pod jinou autoritou a tu musím poslouchat. To se jedná o můj vztah k Pánu Bohu.“
„Tak jsme si povídali a on se ptal - Proč jste jezdila na Slovenska? Protože tam byli lidé, kteří chtěli slyšet boží slovo a neměli příležitost. Modrý kríž jste zrušili, strana a vláda. To byli všechno lidé z Modrého kríže a teď jim neměl kdo sloužit, a tak jsem za nimi jezdila a zvěstovala jsem jim evangelium a měli jsme moc krásná shromáždění. Tak jsem si spolu povídali a bylo to moc hezké. Potom on řekl, abych ještě nedocházela že si se mnou rád povídá. A řekl - Podepište to. A četla jsem ve spisu, že jsem chodila na Kopaniny, abych přesvědčovala lidi ke vstupu do JRD, to je jednotné zemědělské družstvo slovensky. Já jsem říkala - Co jste to tady napsal? To není pravda. Jenom to podepište, jenom to podepište. Pak šel s lejstrem nahoru, tam byli jeho poddaní a ti mě měli vyslýchat. Tam jsme přišli za nimi a on jim řekl - Podepište to. My jsme nikoho nevyslýchali. On řekl – Já jsem ji vyslechl. Věděla jsem, že to bylo řízení boží, že ti dva chalani, kteří tam byli, by si mě řádně podali. Podepsali to. A vedoucí estébák dostal důkladné svědectví o boží lásce a o tom, jak může potkávat dobré lidi místo případů.“
“I also wrote to Doctor Schweitzer that I so desired to be there with him, and that I had absolutely no way of getting there. Mr. Kalous, a preacher from the Unity of the Brethren (Unitas Fratrum, Moravian Brethren), was going there to visit him. Since he was in favour of the communists as well, from time to time he was allowed to travel there with humanitarian aid. I thus gave this letter to him, and he then brought me a reply from the doctor. What I remember from Dr. Schweitzer’s reply was that ´everyone has their Lambaréné,´ and it does not necessarily have to be in Africa on the Ogowe River.”
“Another boss came there--he was even a few years younger than me. He was using God’s name in vain, which was very hard for me to bear. I said: ´Comrade director, you pray so often, don’t you?´ - ´Me, a communist?!´ - ´Wasn’t this a quick prayer? Because you call on God’s name incessantly.´ - ´No way, absolutely not! What should I say, then?´ - ´Christopher Columbus, for instance, or whatever, but do not use God’s name in vain. There is terrible punishment for that. The Lord God will not let go unpunished anybody who uses his name in vain.´ And he really began saying Christopher Columbus instead.”
“I worked in the internal medicine department as an ordinary nurse. And one day, as I was returning from my night duty, there was a man in a leather coat standing in front of the house where we lived. The Holy Spirit said to me in my heart: ´This gentleman is looking for you.´ And so I approached him and said: ´I am Jeníková, are you looking for me?´ This scared him awfully. He followed me up the stairs to my uncle’s apartment, and there he handed me a letter summoning me to the Secret Police. I thus went there on the specified date and he interrogated me. He was already a bit more prepared for some surprises. ´You believed what you were preaching?´ - ´Of course.´ - ´Come on, I thought that Christians were only in historical novels and films.´ I replied: ´You are lucky that it’s not true, because otherwise the economy here would have already collapsed. The only people who work honestly here are the Christians.´ - ´And you also wore that priest’s robe?´ I said, no, I like to dress nicely. This was the way we talked.”
“The deacon sisters, who worked as nurses in the hospital, told me: ´They are opening a one-year course for graduates. You got a school-leaving certificate, and you are thus eligible. You can get certified as a nurse.´ I thought: ´That’s great. I will need this in the mission field, and it’s only for one year. I can do that.´ And so, I went to study the nursing school to get a diploma. But, I was already thrown into the Bolshevik system. When you have studied something, they give you a placement order and send you somewhere...”
“While I was preparing for my further activities in France, I suddenly came across this verse in the Bible in the 13th chapter to Romans: ´Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.´ I argued: ´God, you don’t mean the communists, do you?!´ - ´I do.´ - ´The communists?´ - ´You think that the communists are excluded from my power? They are not.´ - ´And do I have to be subject to the communists?´ - ´They are your higher power.´ Thus, I knew what to do. I sat down and wrote a letter to the Ministry of Education that I requested an extension of my study stay in France in order to study medicine, and I sent it to the Ministry. I waited for the reply, and it came soon: ´You have finished the studies for which you had been originally granted the study permit, and therefore return to Czechoslovakia.´ I thought: ´God, do you see this? See? And where is my calling for Africa?´”
“My son was brought up in truth. The teacher asked me: ´Mrs. Hallerová, what is it you are telling to your child?´ - ´You mean what I’m telling him?´ - ´Well, when we were discussing Lenin, he jumped up from his seat and said that it was not true, because his mom said that Lenin ordered soldiers to shoot into children.´ - ´But this is true, teacher, don’t you know it? During the Great October Revolution, the orphans were so numerous, and children were roaming the streets of large cities like wild herds, and Lenin simply didn’t know what to do with them. And so, he ordered shooting at them. You didn’t know that?´ - ´Well, Mrs. Hallerová, but I cannot say that.´ - ´But I, as a mother, can say it. And my son will thus learn the truth'.”
“The investigator said: ´You know what, do not hire a lawyer, that is too expensive. This God of yours will set you free.´ He handed me a thick file with testimonies and told me: ´Read this.´ I was browsing through the pages and I found out that all the testimonies in my favour were from my friends-communists, from the director, from the communist party chairman, from the labour union chairman, the chairman of the Red Cross…. All the people - communists from Uherský Brod - that knew me testified how great I was. And only the preachers, my good friends, testified this: ´We had admonished her, she is undisciplined and disobedient, we had warned her.´ This was what they had said about me. ´Don’t worry about what these Bible thumpers say. Nobody cares what they say. What matters is that the communists testified so nicely about you,´ said this man. ´Do not hire a lawyer.´”
Ludmila Hallerová was born on September 1, 1928 in Vsetín in the family of state official František Jeník. She graduated in 1947, and in February of the following year she went to Beatenberg in Switzerland to study a two-year missionary school. After missionary school, Ludmila planned to study medicine in France, and then to go work for a Christian mission in Africa. However, the Czechoslovak authorities did not grant her permission to extend her stay abroad, and she had to return to Czechoslovakia. Ludmila then completed a one-year nursing course, and was subsequently placed as a nurse in Nový Jičín. n time, Ludmila worked in several other places in the country, and, while working, she also spread the gospel and preached. She established contacts with Slovak confessional churches and she was traveling to several places in western Slovakia, which did not go unnoticed by the Secret Police. S Ludmila was interrogated in 1959 and then tried in 1960. She managed to receive a suspended sentence for disrupting the state control over churches, so she continued working in healthcare. In 1961 Ludmila married Oldřich Haller, an electrical engineer. The lived in Prague and they had two children. During the time of the political thaw, she continued her evangelical ministry and wrote and translated foreign books on spirituality. During her frequent trips abroad, Ludmila maintained contacts with schoolmates from her studies in Switzerland. She also made a point to smuggle books over the border. In 1989 she established the Missionary Department of the Kostnická Jednota (Konstanz Unity Association) to support missionaries in Cameroon, Gambia and India. And in the early 1990s, she began organizing evangelical tours to Israel. More of Ludmila’s story can be found in her autobiography titled, ‘Pod oblakem’ (Under the Cloud). Ludmila Hallerová passed away on July, the 23rd, 2022.
