Share Your Memories of Richard Wurmbrand
Rev. Richard Wurmbrand had an impact on many lives, but none have heard every story. Please use the comment area below to share your story of how Richard Wurmbrand’s mission blessed you.
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Doy gracias a Dios por lo que hizo en la vida del Rev. Richard Wurbrand, fui limpiada y salvada por el sacrificio de Jesús a los 16 años y quiero compartir que su testimonio nos hace volver al evangelio de las Escrituras, no al evangelio facil que se nos predica en estos tiempos, donde ser cristiano no cuesta nada y Dios está al servicio del hombre. Volver al evangelio que predicaron los apóstoles a costa de sus propias vidas, y es que Jesús es todo o es nada o vivimos para él o no, no hay medias tintas. Fuera de Jesús no tenemos nada, fuera de Jesús no hay esperanza para nosotros. Gracias Jesús por lo que has hecho en mi vida y por testimonios como los del Rev. Richard Wurbrand.
I would just like to say that I read the book ‘Tortured for Christ’ years ago and understood through it perhaps more than through any I had read up to that date, the kind of world that Christ died for. Man’s inhumanity to his fellow man is indescribable, and it is quite unbelievable to think the depths to which human beings, created in the image of God would sink in their treatment of one another. Only God knows why, yet in order to have a beautiful rose, I suppose you have to have the manure; in order to have the advantages of fire, you have to be burned and taste the flipside of misuse of the same in order to learn not to misuse it. People always seem to have to prove things to the uttermost for themselves and will rarely, surely, simply take another’s word for it. I, too, used to be like that, until (thank God!) I got saved. God bless you Richard Wurmbrand and family for what you have suffered for Christ and ultimately for those who would follow after, and for your torcherers themselves!
A few years ago I checked out the book Christ in the Communist Prisons by Richard Wurmbrand. I could not believe what this man went through because of his love and loyalty to Jesus Christ. I am amazed at Richard and Sabina’s Christian witness while in prison and the depth of their love for their fellow believers and captors. The testimony of Mrs. Wurmbrand forgiving and instantly receiving as a brother in Christ the man who had murdered her family is completely awesome. And we hold petty things against others, when she could forgive, really brings me to repentance for not forgiving others. Reading any material published by VOM is very encouraging to my faith.
I found the book ‘In God’s Underground’ vry infromative. I even had parts underlined in yellow highlighter pen and black ink. My favorite phrase was as spoken by S. Wurmbrand ‘ I will not have a coward for a husband, go on and do it.’ That one certainly gave me some thinking to do. Since then I have brought speech(s) to the younger kids class at my church, High School S. School, Bible Study, S. School class. Every time i’m up there or at one point(sitting down) I feel like ‘ I can’t, i can’t.’ Once I almost had low blood sugar attack. Thankfully i stayed and i did it. So for now………I’m reading the wife’s side of story, the family’s side of the story. I’mhoping to have the book in God’s Underground again someday. So i may read it and memorize it and tell his story, their stories. Celebrated 10th year annaversery pretty good also it was my B-day so i celebrated a little in style, not too much.
I’m hoping for more ways to ‘Get up there and do it.’ and continue to share their stories -no matter what.
For the persecuted,
Miss Nixdorf
3WPS/Voice Vol.
I had just arrived from Venezuela with my wife and two daughters, running away from the communist regime led by the current president.
We lost absolutely everything, 23 years of work in the state-owned oil company PDVSA, a professional career, torn away from our extended family, and arriving here without knowing anyone. It was not an easy thing. But perhaps the most difficult thing at that time was to find myself in the midst of an existential dilemma where my faith was shredded, and my perspective on life was fragmented. I felt frustrated, tired and far from God, even though I had been an active member and leader in the evangelical Christian church in my country for 32 years. Faith, as I had conceived it since my conversion, had lost meaning for me, and the church didn’t attract or inspire me as before. The only thing that had stability for me was my marriage and family, and that too was starting to waver. The Pastor’s RICHARD WURMBRAND life has been an inspiraton for us this is the reason why we are understand the comunist sistems and our cristian possition.
I have not yet read Wurmbrand’s autobiography- however, one excerpt from Tortured for Christ has changed me.
I am a novelist. Though nothing of mine has been published in the “real” marketplace, what does come out will, I hope, have some impact. My manuscript is an alternate history-
a kind of novel which answers the question, “What would have happened if…”
a given change had taken place in the course of past events.
I have already gone far into preparing my manuscript for publication, revising it at least six times. Two more novels were in my mind until I read these words from Pastor Wurmbrand:
“When you were a child, you might have sat on a small stool and looked at your mother’s embroidery. From your perspective, it was a confusion of zigzags, knots, and loose threads. Then your mother, to help you understand, turned the embroidery on the right side so you could see and appreciate the design.
You must stop looking on the wrong side of things….
Lift your hearts to heavenly places and look down from that vantage point. You will see life’s temporary sufferings as a gathering of pearls and jewels with which we will be adorned in eternity.”
After I’d read these words on several different occasions, I began to think of my own alternate histories. Pondering this for a few days, I concluded I needed to end my plans for the second and third novels- the second, especially, because it focused on Stalinist Russia. I felt that writing the book would, in a way, be a betrayal. The first would remain because I had invested so much- and because I believe it differs enough from the two that needed to go.
This change is a blessing. I believe God used it to free my time to pursue what He has chosen- and the years of research and scenario-making I put into my abandoned alternate histories developed my mind and my understanding in ways I could probably write at least one whole chapter on. The fact that He let me start with a few flawed premises (every child has some!), run with them, and then gradually see the truth proved His ways better than just letting me read about them. I don’t think He’s finished.
Richard Wurmbrand and this ministry are a real inspiration. As Americans, we tend to take for granted our freedoms of religion, speech and right to worship and speak out.
In the last 100 years around the world, I under there has been more martyrdom of Christians than in any other century. This is staggering and appalling.
Sometimes I feel it is ‘open season’ on Christians by the US media and Hollywood. We are usually depicted poorly. We need to speak up not just in the USA, but around the world, and help through prayer and money our brothers and sisters in Christ.
It seems to be acceptable to bash and denigrate Christians.. but really gets the media attention if another religion is bashed.
God Bless this ministry.. the founders and all the people involved with it!
Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, and his wife Sabina, have clearly shown us a true example of living the Word of God, and of what it means to suffer for Christ, and to love our enemy. In the midst of suffering Richard and Sabina loved by sharing the Word of God to their torturers that they too may be saved. “A flower, if you bruise it under your feet, rewards you by giving you its perfume.” (Richard Wurmbrand)
My life has been forever changed after reading and hearing the sermons by Pastor Richard and Sabina that are available. I praise God for His ministers whom He gives to us as salt and light to help us to know how to walk that narrow path that Christ Jesus calls us to walk as we move toward eternity. I have learned so much from Pastor Wurmbrand and Sabina.
I strongly support this ministry and encourage others to do the same, that we as members of the Body of Christ may support and help our brothers and sister in Christ who suffer horribly for their confession of faith in Christ Jesus. For when one member suffers the whole Body suffers with it.
May the LORD move in the hearts and minds of the members of the Body of Christ to rise up in faith and obedience to pray and provide material help for our brethren suffering and in need. Let us not forget the suffering of their children as well. Michael Wurmbrand knows personally the pain and suffering of losing his parents to imprisonment as a child and having no one to take care of him, no place to lay his head, and no bread to eat.
Michael Wurmbrand, all of those in the Voice of the Martyrs ministries throughout the world, and all of our suffering brothers and sisters in Christ are in my prayers. I love you all in Christ. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Please bear with me as a share somethings from my heart. The Lord is answering my prayer in that I read “Tortured For Christ” recently. I was so very moved by the love and faithfulness of Pastor Richard and Sabrina Wurmbrand (and others) to Christ. I was convicted as well, and I should have been because my heart had grown cold. I have been so grieved with the state of the decline of Western christianity, that I literally left fellowshipping with the body until the Lord dealt with me to go back to church. I believe that I have allowed my cynicism to bring coldness into my heart, and have prayed that the Lord give me more passion for the lost etc.
I have repented to the Lord for my lack of showing more people His love. It’s far too easy to be a lukewarm christian in America because the body has been lulled into believing that as long as our basic needs, and many times greeds are met (well, that’s basically all that matters). The problem is that this type of lifestyle for a christian is like poison to the soul because it kills the passion and love for the things Christ loves and gave His life for (the lost).
I believe that there are many in the body of Christ in America who are experiencing coldness of heart and they know deep down it is not right. We have selfishly focused on our own problems and issues and carried out our agenda’s, and have neglected to take up the cause of Christ through support of missions like VOM. The word says that the truth will set us free. To go on in this state of denial about this matter is something I liken to a curse that has come upon this country.
We have Churches and Bibles everywhere, and yet we are so very spiritually bankrupt. I believe there are some christian ministries here that are trying to do the will of God, but they are the exception. If I were to come here from a foreign country where there was no real religious freedom, I imagine I would be heartbroken to find so many christians who have such a shallow understanding of the true message of the gospel. So many of our Sherpards that should have reminded us to pray for and provide support for our persecuted brothers and sisters all around the world have been far too silent for far too long.
The Lord has given me the opportunity to show His love and support to a part of the body that needs it desparately. I will assist you in helping our brothers and sisters as the Holy Spirit directs me to. I don’t do this from purely guilt, but from the heart of a fellow believer who has felt disconnected from part of her own body. To love and care for Jesus’ body is to love Him. Please pray for me and with me to ask the Lord to stir the hearts of His children to love their brothers in sisters all around the world who are tortured for their faith, that we give them our financial support as well. Thank you.
Love in Chrst,
L.J.
God Bless You All my name is Andrei Manea ,I was born in Romania in 1974 ,my grandfather was jailed because he was found with dollars and he was capitalist ,because he didnt make politics and he wasnt a christian he got only two years and all wealth confiscated I heard about Pastor Wurmbrand here in USA where I live together with my venezuelan wife Mayra, God use her and five years after I met her I open my heart to Jesus and now we are active part in a local hispanic church.My family are anticomunist and I like to say something what I read and I liked `I hate comunism but I love comunists` or at least I try now after I found Jesus because before I use to hate them like the rest of my family.My other grandfather was a soldier who has to chose the comunist party in order to continue a carrier in the romanian army but he said NO to the comunists and everything finish there for him ,later on on his latest 70 he was arrested by the secret police because he wrote a letter to the dictatator (Nicolae Ceausescu) telling him about the situation in Romania and asking him to do something about that then he was arrested.Many of his brothers were arrested because they refused to give their land and their animals to the comunists cooperatives. My aunt she has the courage to say enough I want to go in Usa (her brother in law was in USA) . She has to wait ten years until the comunist goverment let her to leave the country and to pass all kind of difficult situations. They call her a traitor and they ask her all kind of questions and long hours of interogatories .Before the comunist goverment confiscated a house from her because she has two and the comunist law was everybody supose to have only one house . In my family I could feel the hate against the comunists but I was always told to dont talk to nobody anything. I found out my family story after 1989 when I was already an adult and I heard about pastor Richard Wurmbrand here in USA if you can beleive this . Now I got to understand many things , and I understand is not about the tragedy of my family only is about the tragedy of a nation and unfortunately many nations and many people suffer because of force of evil (comunism).But I understand something else too and my Pastor from my church always said nobody can fight with God not the comunism , not the atheists , not the religion fanatics,nobody is more powerful then Jesus.Over Two thousands year of christianity many try to destroy the christians but they cant. How I said I heard about Pastor Wurmbrand here in USA watching in the internet `Memorialul durerii` a documentar about the comunists martyrs and heroes who fight in different ways for the freedom of Romania. Then I asked my family if they know about Pastor Wurmbrand and they say yes and I told my mom in Romania that I want his books hoping she will buy the books and read it and open her heart to Jesus.My mom she came to visit me last year and I try to talk with her about Jesus but she is very hard ,she is anticomunist but we have conflicts because of my conversion to Jesus.Anyway I was thinking when I saw the material about Pastor Wurmbrand and other martyrs to make an association to fight the comunism and to spread the Word of God .How I said my wife is from Venezuela a beautiful country but now I see what is going on there and I see how history can repeat ,I see how Hugo Chavez the venezuelan dictator (I cant call him other name ) is doing the same thing what the comunists did in 1945 in Romania with the churches . Many people (even some christians ) they believe Chavez is send from God ,that Jesus is the first revolutionary and things like this.I see how Latin America is slowly, slowly conquest by the comunists (even they call themselves differently now like socialism of 21st century) Countries like Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina, Nicaragua El Salvador and maybe someothers what I dont remember now. I see how the world and society call the GOOD bad and the bad GOOD. In one Romanian movie somebody said something like that `if We forgot the history We can repeat it ` that why I thanks God for Pastor Wurmbrand and his vision of VOM . When I told my family that I want to fight the global comunism they told me` you are mad , you know with who you want to fight but I believe that one person can make the difference and if each one of us dont fight the evil will win . My wife and I are reading the book and my wife she is amazed about what she read ,she realize that many things what I told her were true about the comunism evil rule in my country and about the tragedy of many people and families.Yesterday night we read the book together,she cry and she asked me `you think your grandfather pass the same like pastor Wurmbrand in the comunist jail and I answer ` I dont think so because he wasnt a christian but the true is He never talked about his years in jail. That why I think is very brave what Pastor Wurmbrand did and how he fight against the comunism. Now I believe is our turn to do something and to fight the comunism and to spread the word of God . I know also Tom White was in prision in Cuba . What is bothering me is that everybody talk about nazi crimes they make movies etc, but almost nobody talk about the comunist crimes no one comunist country ever apologize public for their crimes . After the fall of comunism in Romania the next president was a comunist( level 2 in comunist party ) his name Ion Iliescu who never apologize for what the comunist party ( he was an active member of ) did to our country. Watching the Latin America situation I will like to do something about and like that maybe many people can enjoy the real freedom what Jesus give to us and not the pseudofreedom what the leftist comunists socialists goverment promise them . In This date aug-23-1944 the red army invade my country (they came to bring freedom acording to the comunists which make this date the national holliday of Romania ) Those are my thoughts and I will apreciate an answer from you .
With love in Jesus Christ
Andrei Manea 08-23-2009