A Church full of revolutionaries

I think it would be redundant to go over the last few days. Everyone has done a wonderful job with their entries. What I want to share is our experience today with the manager of the radio station here in Sibiu, Ilie Jinar.

After Steve and I each recorded interviews that will later be broadcast throughout Romania through this station (Radio Vocea Evangheliei) and its eight sister stations in the network, we left to go down the elevator (the station is located on the 9th floor). It's a very old elevator, about 35 years, and was built during the communist era. Ilie made the comment that it's amazing that on the roof of a building that was built by the Ceauşescu regime stands an antenna for gospel radio that is broadcast around a 50km radius of Sibiu.

This prompted a conversation, question-answer session, about the day of revolution. Ilie shared about where he was and what he was doing. He knew of a woman who was working in a bank on the great plaza who was killed by gunfire. He and many others from Betania were in the plaza that day to demonstrate against the Ceauşescu regime. He shared about his apartment being in a building caught between two opposing forces and how his kids implored him to get them to safety. And he related how he got his family out to safety. And the emotional moment when they heard on the radio that Ceauşescu was dead and for the first time hearing Christmas carols and hymns being broadcast (the revolution was in December, 1989).

Ilie's comment was that man tried to forge and form a history of Romania that would not include God, but God prevails and history will record His sovereignty over the nations. I think it's a lesson that is constant in the minds and hearts of many at Betania. Their leaders and pastors are among the many millions of Romanians who are revolutionaries that brought down the communist regime. Our God is sovereign over the nations and He will reign forever.