BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

Kurber, a West Point graduate, was living his dream. As a child, his parents had put a world map on the wall beside his bed. Staring at that map, he’d developed two dreams. He wanted a career in the Army. And someday, he wanted to live in the state that jutted out so far north—Alaska. Now undercover in one of the most dangerous cities in the world, one recurring thought threatened to distract him. God had another plan for his life. He had called him to preach the gospel. Foundation of Faith “The assignment to Berlin was my second assignment to Germany,” Keith recalls. “From February 1984 through December 1986, I’d been stationed at Bad Tölz. My wife, Nola, was there with me and by God’s grace we fell in with a group of Pentecostals at our chapel. Through them we got filled with the Holy Spirit. They also introduced us to books and tapes by Kenneth Hagin and Kenneth Copeland. “There was no internet back then and we only got one television channel, which we didn’t watch. We spent our lives praying in the spirit and learning to live by faith. We listened to Brother Copeland’s tapes on faith over and over. In 1986, when I was asked to bring the message at chapel, I preached his sermon, ‘Following the Faith of Abraham.’ “One of my favorite books by Brother Copeland is "Six Steps to Excellence in Ministry." I still have it on my desk today. We listened to Brother Hagin teach on ‘What to Do When Faith Seems Weak and Victory Lost.’ Most people think that the idea of living by faith seems strange. But for us, it was the fiber of our lives from the second year of our marriage. We had no idea how much we would need that foundation of faith in the coming years.” In 1988, Keith and his team of Special Forces flew to Okinawa, Japan, where they planned a mission. In April, they parachuted over wild terrain in Alaska where they trained in the wilderness for the next 10 days during an exercise. Leaning against a tree, Keith heard the voice of the Lord. 'I call you to pastor a church in Fairbanks, Alaska.' Keith had never dreamed of anything other than a career in the military, but in a sweep of divine grace, God planted in his heart the desire to pastor. The Fall of the Wall A few months later, in January 1989, he was deployed to Berlin, a city torn by different factions and by fear. Two years earlier, on Jan. 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan had spoken at the Brandenburg Gate in West Germany. “General Secretary Gorbachev,” he’d said, “…come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Those bold words shocked the world, but it turned out that God was behind them. In June 1989, He gave His word about the matter when Kenneth Copeland prophesied, 'There are going to be political walls and political fences that crumble right before men’s eyes. Mighty, mighty strongholds of political power and political strength in different political systems all over the world will suddenly change hands, crumble and fall. And men will say, "I never would have thought that would happen...." The Berlin Wall will come down. It’s a sign....' At the time, such a thing had seemed impossible. Yet only a few months later, Keith Kurber noticed that a brisk wind of change seemed to be thawing the Cold War. For weeks, East Germans had escaped across the border to Czechoslovakia, and no one tried to stop them. Nov. 9, 1989, East Berlin’s Communist Party announced that starting at midnight, citizens of East Berlin were free to cross the borders. That evening East and West Berliners flocked both sides of the wall chanting, “Tor auf! Tor auf!” “Open the gate! Open the gate!” At midnight when the gate opened, thousands of people swept through the border. Many were reunited with family members they hadn’t seen since 1961. That weekend more than 2 million people from East Berlin flooded through the checkpoints. However, for those who had been trapped behind that wall, open checkpoints weren’t enough. Using hammers, picks and bulldozers, they tore the monstrosity down. For the first time since 1945, Berlin was reunited. “We lived on the base and Nola had just given birth to our fourth child 10 days before this happened,” Keith remembers. “I was on duty when a staff officer shouted, ‘Guys! Get down here!’ Cars were streaming from East Berlin through Checkpoint Charlie. It was such a historic event that Nola and I mailed a piece of the wall to Kenneth and Gloria.” A Leap of Faith In 1991, Keith left the Army but remained active in the reserves. Moving his family to Tulsa, Okla., he attended and later graduated from Rhema Bible Training Center. In 1993, they moved to Fairbanks where they served at Door of Hope Church for 11 years. Nola was the children’s pastor for six years. Keith served as a lay pastor and later became an associate pastor. “During those years I was away from my family a lot,” Keith recalls. “Between training in the reserves and my job as a police and fire officer at the Fairbanks Airport it seemed as though we were always saying goodbye—which sometimes feels harder than war. “In 2002, while the two oldest of our four children were starting Rhema, I was deployed to the Horn of Africa to a place called Djibouti. By now I was a colonel and the senior Special Forces officer in the area. We were scheduled to do a training jump one Saturday night, but the wind speeds got too high and it was postponed. 20 : BVOV

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