#67 A Chance Conversation - Jurgen & Shawn Beck

Season 6
Written By Paul Hastings
 
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Jurgen and Shawn Beck’s individual journeys of faith were initially separated by an ocean.

Yet God brought this couple together, from opposite sides of the world, to minister to those around them in ways they never would have dreamed of.

The following is a summary of the podcast interview above with Jurgen and Shawn Beck. Many more details are included in the original podcast episode and we encourage you to listen.

Written by Jace Bower

Born Oceans Apart

Jurgen and Shawn Beck grew up on different continents but God brought them together and used them in His own special way.

Jurgen was born in the early 1960s in post-war Germany. His family structure was heavily influenced by the ideologies of the Third Reich’s emphasis on fertility and a liberal attitude towards marriage and procreation. His father and mother were not married and his father was in fact married to another woman. He would spend time with his “other family” (Jurgen and his siblings) every couple of weeks but soon drifted out of their lives completely.

Shawn was born in Minnesota. Both she and Jurgen grew up in the Lutheran church but for Shawn church wasn’t something she was interested in. Shawn’s church experience wasn’t connected with a vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ but was instead more of a formality.

Likewise, Jurgen’s faith was shallow early on and he didn’t know Jesus as his Savior. Despite this, he felt like there had to be more to life and to his faith than what he was experiencing.

God Draws Shawn

God brought both Jurgen and Shawn to Himself through the influence of believers who had been transformed by Christ’s love.

For Shawn, it started with her uncle who gave his life to the Lord after returning from the Vietnam War. He had taken off for California, soul-searching, and had returned a changed man. Shawn was interested in her uncle’s new faith and even felt moved to go forward during one particular altar call but the disapproval from her relatives held her back.

Meanwhile, her parents both came to know Jesus in a personal way and placed their faith in Him for their salvation. Shawn’s father took the family first to Southern California and then to Round Rock, TX. There, her parents attended Christ For the Nations Bible College. 

Shawn hated life in the small town of Round Rock and was hardened against the gospel. She took pride in her identity as someone who didn’t cry. But this began to change when she saw a schoolmate be transformed by the gospel. She attended church at this girl’s invitation and the Holy Spirit moved in her heart and broke down her stubborn walls. She cried for an hour and a half at the back of the room that night and gave her life to Christ.

Jurgen Finds True Faith

Jurgen also gave his life to the Lord through the witness of a friend who attended a non-denominational church in Germany. This friend introduced him to the idea of a personal relationship with Jesus that went beyond the external religious traditions that he had grown up with. He came to faith and was baptized at a church retreat that his friend had invited him to.

God began using both Jurgen and Shawn immediately for His work. Shawn followed her parents to Australia, where they taught the Bible in schools.

Meanwhile, Jurgen began serving with a humanitarian organization which he quickly realized was smuggling Bibles into the Soviet Union.

Christ For the Nations Bible College

It was through his work smuggling Bibles that Jurgen met graduates of Christ For the Nations Bible College, the same school that Shawn’s parents had attended. In 1987, Jurgen moved over to the United States to attend the Bible school. It just so happened that Shawn had also moved back and was working in the dorms.

The two met soon after when Shawn started taking guitar lessons from Jurgen. They got married and in 1990 they moved to Eastern Europe to teach praise and worship in the newly opened countries of the Eastern Bloc.

Starting a Family

When they moved back to the United States, Jurgen and Shawn were ready to start their family. But despite many years of trying, they weren’t able to get pregnant. They began to consider adoption but they weren’t sure they wanted to adopt locally since that would most likely mean an open adoption where the biological mother had visiting rights. The Becks weren’t entirely comfortable with that idea.

They continued to pray and struggle through the difficult season of waiting. Then one day, Shawn noticed that a woman she had hired recently was showing signs of fatigue at the workplace. Shawn wondered if the woman was pregnant and decided to ask since the job she was hired for required some physical exertion that would not be suitable for a pregnant woman.

The woman told her that she was pregnant and had an abortion scheduled for later that week. Shawn asked if she could talk with her and the woman agreed. Shawn shared the gospel and told the woman that her baby was a precious life made in God’s image. There were other alternatives besides abortion. Shawn even mentioned adoption as one of those alternatives.

Two Dreams

Not long after that, Shawn had two dreams that led her to think more about her exchange with the woman. In the first dream, she saw a child running from a tornado. Shawn scooped the child up in her arms. In the second, she saw Jurgen and herself holding a little girl, their child.

These dreams eventually prompted Shawn to reach back out to the woman she had talked to about adoption. The woman had decided not to go through with her abortion and was planning to put her baby up for adoption. After talking it over with Jurgen, Shawn offered to adopt her baby. She wasn’t sure how the woman would respond but she enthusiastically agreed to the adoption proposal!

Annie

When the little girl was born Shawn was at the hospital and was the first to hold her. Jurgen and Shawn named the baby Arianna Grace as a testimony to God’s grace in bringing them a child and saving Arianna’s life from abortion. They nicknamed their daughter Annie.

Despite all the joy surrounding their new baby girl’s arrival, there was one hiccup. Annie’s biological mother had not signed the adoption paperwork and had decided she didn’t want to give her baby up after all. Jurgen received the call from their attorney and felt crushed but waited until Shawn got home later that day to tell her. 

What he didn’t know was that, on that very same day, another woman who had been in similar circumstances as Annie’s biological mother, had paid a visit to the birth mom and had encouraged her to go through with the adoption. Before Jurgen even had a chance to break the bad news to Shawn, the birth mother signed the paperwork and the attorney called Jurgen to update him on the situation.

God’s Smiling Providence

Today, Annie is a high school graduate and is embarking on the next chapter of her life. Her life indeed is a testimony to the goodness and providence of God.

Through all of Jurgen and Shawn’s adventures, both before and after their marriage, God’s providence has been shining faithfully. In the moment, it is not always clear how God is working all things for the good of His people but He is. 

God has brought the Becks through many struggles, challenges, and joys. He continues to bless them. Their story emphasizes how big the plan of God is. He took two people, born on opposite sides of the world, and brought them together to be used integrally in saving and shaping the life of one girl. But the Becks’ story has touched far more people than just their daughter.

On this side of eternity, only God can see just how far-reaching the impact of this family will be!

—
Jace Bower is a writer with a passion for justice and biblical principles. He writes at jacebower.com.

🔗 Links

Jurgen is a film composer. Please enjoy some of his music below:

🎧 3 RECOMMENDED EPISODES:

 
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