“I Took You to Bethlehem…”

By Thomas Rutkoski

    At the age of 16, I walked away from my Catholic faith. As a non-practicing Catholic for over twenty-five years, I lived life for myself. My life was very materialistic and laced with enough sin to guarantee me a place in hell, if I continued that course.  This story, in short, tells of how Jesus and Mary brought me to conversion.

   I am a professional photo-journalist. In September of 1982, I left with a crew from KDKA TV NEWS for Beirut, Lebanon, to follow the tour of Senator Arlen Specter. Our mission was twofold; first to do a story on war-torn Beirut, then to obtain an interview with Manachem Begin in Jerusalem. I, with my colleagues, persevered, and we were successful on both counts.

   The night of the Beirut interview, we all went out and celebrated, before heading back to the United States. A strange thing occurred. I was sitting at the dinner table, and about halfway through my meal, a man came up to me on my left. He said, “Excuse me, how have you liked Jerusalem?” Being a little reluctant about speaking to strangers, I simply replied, “Fine.”  I went back to eating. The man persisted. “Is there anything you would have liked to have seen that you have not seen?”  Offhandedly I responded, “Yeah, Bethlehem, Christmas and all that.” “I have a car outside. Come, I will take you there,” he replied.

   Why I left with that man, I don’t know, but I did. He took me to Bethlehem.  We drove through a gate, he stopped the car and I got out. I was only in Bethlehem for a moment. A strong emotion immediately overwhelmed me. My eyes swelled, and I started to cry. He got out of the car and asked me if everything was all right. I said yes. He told me to get in and he would take me back to the hotel. He dropped me off, and the next day I left for home.

   In October of 1985, my Uncle Stanley, a very good friend of mine, and I, decided to take a trip to Europe that included traveling through France. What was not on the itinerary was a stop we made at a shrine to the Blessed Mother called Lourdes. Again, a strange set of circumstances led us there. Although at the time, I didn’t connect it with Bethlehem, the same phenomena occurred. For no apparent reason, tears started rolling down my face, and I got a very powerful feeling in my flesh. This feeling came as I was making fun of Lourdes and its miraculous water and cures. Did this change my life? No, unfortunately it did not.

   In 1986, the thirst for overseas travel struck again. Two of my friends joined my wife and me for our vacation through several European countries. After two weeks, our friends returned home. My wife and I continued to Madrid, Spain, and up into France. While traveling to Lisbon, Portugal, for our departure to the U.S., another strange set of circumstances caused a deviation in our planned route. This time, we happened upon a shrine to the Blessed Mother called Fatima. The same scenario occurred as at Lourdes. While looking at a statue of the Blessed Mother, I said, “Hi there. It’s me again.”  Immediately, tears started to roll down my face. I got the same feeling as I did in Lourdes and Bethlehem, but I was, for the third time, to leave a very holy place unchanged.

   In August of 1987, my Uncle Stanley visited my home with a small newspaper that reported the apparitions of the Blessed Mother to six children in Medjugorje, Yugoslavia. The non-religious atmosphere in which I lived, led me to poke fun at the article, but the story did give me a bizarre idea. If I could convince my employer, KDKA TV, to buy into the story about Medjugorje, I would get a trip overseas. Their response was negative. Being persistent, I initiated an effort to find a connection linking Pittsburgh to Medjugorje. I wanted to generate some interest at KDKA. In my search, I found a man by the name of Pat Geinzer. Pat was quitting his job as a radiologist at Mercy Hospital and going into the priesthood. [ He has since been ordained as a member of the Passionists.]  I contacted Pat.  After listening to his amazing story, I left with a book he gave me called, The Queen of Peace Visits Medjugorje.

   Not being much of a reader, because one of my many physical problems is dyslexia, I carried the book around for quite a while, not reading it.  While sitting on my boat at the Fox Chapel Yacht Club, one of my favorite former pastimes, I found myself very much alone, and there was the book, lying on the seat beside me. I picked the book up, and my usual problems with reading didn’t bother me. I soon found myself immersed in reading about Mary’s apparitions in Medjugorje. It was in the third chapter of this book that the course was charted for the remaining years of my life. A voice spoke to me

and said, “Thomas, I took you to Bethlehem; I took you to Lourdes; I took you to Fatima. Can’t you understand that this is real?”

   There was no need for further communication from the Lord; I knew it was Jesus. That profound revelation took me from my boat to the closest Catholic Church in a matter of moments. I found the pastor and made my first confession in twenty-five years.

   Between that visit to the priest and my first trip to Medjugorje in September of 1987, I truly came to believe that the Blessed Virgin Mary was appearing there. I would learn just how real Her presence was on that first trip. I experienced many miracles on my first pilgrimage. The miracle of the sun was amazing, but it paled in comparison to my apparition of the Blessed Mother.  I was praying the Rosary behind St. James Church when I glanced at the cross [on Mt. Krizevac]. I was moved to tears again. One would think that would be as good as it gets, but the grand finale occurred Thursday of that week. My traveling companion, Uncle Stanley, badgered me into going to St. James Church for a healing service. Although I rejected the idea of the healing service itself, I went, and I was cured of rheumatoid arthritis. One minute the pain of the disease was destroying me, and the next, it was gone! [ Also, my dyslexia was taken away; a wart on my right hand disappeared, and my hemorrhoids disappered!]

   The impact of all this led me to return home and find a local travel agent to book a pilgrimage space for Medjugorje. It was my intent to fulfill a promise I made to the Lord: “I will bring a hundred people here just to say thank you for what You’re doing for me.”  I returned to Medjugorje the following year with 101 pilgrims that the Lord put in my care. I said to the Lord, “If You want someone to lead people here from the heart, rather than the pocketbook, I might consider it.”  When you give your life to Christ and live the messages of Medjugorje, you have to be careful what you say to the Lord, because He might take you seriously…and He did.

   In 1990, I founded a Catholic, nonprofit foundation dedicated to evangelization and humanitarian efforts, called Gospa Missions. [Gospa is Croatian  for  “Our Lady.”]  Although I had decided that I was not going to tell one person that God spoke to me, it was the Lord who drew it from me. He placed me in a situation that forced the words from my mouth. This caused much religious activity in my life, and I began speaking in churches all over the country and in Canada. In April of 1991, I quit my job at KDKA TV to devote my life to Jesus and Mary.

   The Lord spoke to me in August of 1987, and has never stopped speaking to me since. He transformed me from a very self-centered , materialistic individual to one who daily attends Mass and prays fifteen decades of the Rosary. I also fast twice a week as Mary asks. I deliver to the world the same message that my Mother in Medjugorje is delivering: “I come to tell the world that God exists.” How could I have been such a fool for twenty-five years is beyond my comprehension.  Now I am trying to do all that I can to convince everyone I meet that prayer works, if you pray out of love from your heart.

Gospa Missions Today

By June Klins

   Gospa Missions  was founded by Tom Rutkoski in 1990. Since then, it has grown to include retreats, conferences, prison ministry, healing ministry, speaking engagements, publishing, humanitarian efforts, as well as pilgrimages.

   I always find the Gospa Missions conferences to be very motivating. Tom has brought, among others, such inspirational speakers as Fr. Donald Calloway, David Parkes, Char Vance, Fr. Angelus Shaughnessy, and most recently ,Fr. Mitch Pacwa. I always get that “spiritual shot in the arm” we all need once in a while!    

   One can also get a “spiritual booster” from Tom’s excellent monthly newsletter or from one of the four books he has authored:.Apostles of the Last Days, Miracles and How to Work Them, Great Divide and My Scriptural Rosary. These books, as well as other religious books and items can be purchased at Gospa Missions’ religious store, called “Amazing Grace,” in Evans City, PA.  The profits help fund the charitable work done through Gospa Missions.

    I was blessed to be in the store at noon one time, when Tom led everyone there in the prayer of the Angelus. Wow!  That was awesome! The store also has a replica of the statue of Our Lady of Tihaljina, and a basket near the statue, where prayer petitions can be left. They also have an online store that can be accessed through their website, www.gospa.org.

   Although Tom has no idea why, God has chosen him as an instrument of healing. At one conference, a little boy gave his powerful testimony of being healed of blindness. I, personally, know two other people who have been healed of severe physical problems after having been prayed over by Tom.

   In June of 1999, my son and I traveled to Medjugorje with Gospa Missions. On that pilgrimage, Tom took us to two churches that Gospa  Missions had helped to restore after extensive damage had been done in the war. I was moved to tears as we witnessed the damage done in Mostar by the war. I remember Tom’s words well –  that if the people there had listened to the Mother of God, and heeded Her messages, this would not have happened. It was a powerful lesson I will never forget. 

   The work Tom has done over the years with orphans in Nigeria and India led him to found another non-profit organization called “Abode for Children.”  On my 1999 pilgrimage, one of the pilgrims suggested a sponsorship program for the orphans, whereby a person would send a monthly donation to sponsor a particular orphan. Thanks to the Internet, a person can now choose, online, which orphan he or she would like to sponsor.  One small action that anyone with Internet access can do to help the orphans, is to use the search engine: http://abodeforchildren.clusty.com.   Every search done on there raises money for the orphans!

   Gospa Missions also does charitable work on the home-front. The mission raises vegetables on the Rutkoski farm and stores them until distribution in an underground facility that the mission constructed. This ecumenical project aids area food pantries.  

   For the past few years Tom has been battling terminal cancer, and it is really a miracle that he is still alive. Apparently God still has more work for him to do. But at his conference I attended in early November, he explained that he has recently been going through a new experimental treatment, and if this does not work, they are out of options. Please keep Tom and Gospa Missions in your prayers.
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God Provides and His Timing is Perfect

By June Klins

   For years I had been wanting to use Tom Rutkoski’s story in our newsletter. Tom’s story is chronicled in his book, Apostles of the Last Days, but how do you condense a whole book into two pages???  I had asked Tom for a short version, but apparently he did not remember about writing it back in 1995. I did not relish the thought of condensing his book into a two page story, but as time went on, I felt prompted to do so.  I carried the book around with me for about two months, but never got to it.

   In mid-October, I got some time one Saturday evening and decided to work on it.  I had gone to confession earlier that day and I have found that usually after confession -  because I have a clean slate -  the Holy Spirit can work through me, and usually everything flows. Well, that night I kept getting distracted with other things, and just could not get motivated. Before I knew it, it was bedtime.

  As I began to get ready for bed, I spied a bag of old “Queen of Peace” newspapers my friend had given me the night before, and since I really was not that tired,  I decided to scan through them for a bit. In the second paper I looked at - lo and behold -  there was Tom’s story!!!!!  I hit the jackpot!  What are the odds of that?????

Medjugorje