Our Founder and Servant - Pastor Von

Erhardt George Anton Wolf Trutzschler von Falkenstein, — known simply as “Pastor Von” — entered heaven’s glory in the early evening of November 4, 2016, after many decades of faithfully serving his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Born May 2, 1929, in Hollywood, CA, to artist and author, Baron “Wolo” Trutzschler von Falkenstein and his wife, Mildred (Hoy), a Biola graduate, Von grew up in Los Angeles before coming to San Diego in 1943. He graduated from Kearny High School and worked as an aircraft mechanic at Convair. In 1950, he entered the military, serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War; using spare moments to draw cartoons which ran in several major newspapers back home about the lighter side of Army life from the perspective of a young PVT E-2. 

During his teens, Von began teaching Sunday school at a newly formed church, Emmanuel Baptist, located in Mission Beach at the Women’s Clubhouse. He and other volunteers loaded up their cars with kids to go to Youth For Christ Rallies every Saturday night. It was those first experiences with Youth for Christ that laid the foundation for what would become the strongest partnership between a church youth worker and San Diego Youth for Christ. In 2012, San Diego Youth for Christ chose to recognize Pastor Von as its first Youth Minister Legacy Award Honoree. After returning from military service and continuing his job at Convair, Von volunteered as director of Sunday School and leader of the youth program at a church which later became Clairemont Baptist Church. In 1962, Raymond Hahn, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church, which by now had relocated from Mission Beach to Pacific Beach, offered Von the full-time position as Youth Pastor. He accepted and the youth program grew to the extent that the church needed a larger facility. In 1970 it relocated and merged with Clairemont Baptist, taking on the name Clairemont Emmanuel Baptist Church (CEBC) where Von remained a member until his home-going. 

Pastor Von continued in traditional church youth work until 1981 when he founded and served as director of Spectrum Ministries, a non-profit organization and extension of CEBC’s youth program’s ministry in Tijuana, Mexico. Youth groups from all over the U.S. traveled to San Diego and across the border, getting involved in the hands-on ministry while being challenged to make a difference in their world.

Many of the thousands of kids Von took into Mexico had their lives radically impacted by what they had seen and done. From the Amazon jungles to the barrios of Tijuana, Von visited and ministered in more than 40 countries, with most of his foreign travel by invitation from mission agencies such as Wycliffe, New Tribes and others. His schedule included frequent speaking engagements at conferences, churches, schools for the children of missionaries, retreats and camps. He touched many, guiding them to become the pastors and missionaries of today, resulting in tribes hearing the Gospel for the first time in Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Africa and South America! “Wednesday 7” at CEBC was the place to be if you were a teenager searching for answers in the 70s and 80s. To have more than 500 kids packed into the lower level of the church was the norm. There are hundreds of men and women who have either been taught or mentored by Von. He had a passion to help those whom society saw as invisible, outcast and forgotten. 

At the age of 87, Von continued serving the poorest of the poor as he’d done for over 50 years, ministering in Tijuana’s orphanages, barrios, the children’s jail, old folks home, and “The Dump” — seeking out those who need Jesus and teaching others to do likewise. Luis Alberto Urrea, author of “Across the Wire, Life and Hard Times on the Mexican Border” dedicated his book to Von after working with him and becoming his personal translator and close friend. With integrity, unique humor, creativity, unsurpassed practical jokes, generosity, selfless love, compassion, and no-nonsense messages from God’s Word, Von lived what he preached. He poured out his love daily, with abandon and without restraint to strangers and friends alike, and this near reckless faith of his changed not just his world, but ours as well. He was not perfect, but God used his imperfections for good. He was stubborn — but it requires a dogged tenacity to continue ministering year after year. He was a square peg in a round hole and irreverent about everything except God — but that highlighted what is truly important.