How Western Christians Can Help

I have been called the “Voice of the Underground Church.” I do not feel worthy to be the voice of such an honored part of the Body of Christ.

 However, in Communist nations, I led for years a part of the Underground Church. By a miracle I survived fourteen years of torture and imprisonment, including two years in a prison “dying room.” By an even greater miracle, God somehow saw fit to reach into the prison and bring me out. It was decided by the Underground Church in Romania that I should leave my country and take a message to the free Christians of the world. By a miracle, my family and I were able to leave, and I was able to fulfill the charge given me by those who remained behind laboring, risking, suffering, and dying in dozens of captive nations.

I speak on behalf of my brethren who lie in countless nameless graves. I speak on behalf of my brethren who now meet secretly in forests, basements, attics, and other such places.

The message I bring from the Underground Church is:

“Don’t abandon us!”

“Don’t forget us!”

“Don’t write us off!”

“Give us the tools we need! We will pay the price for using them!”

This is the message I have been charged to deliver to the free Church.

I speak for the Underground Church, the silenced Church, the “dumb” Church, which has no voice to speak.

Hear the cries of your brothers and sisters in captive nations! They do not ask for escape, safety, or an easy life. They ask only for the tools to counteract the poisoning of their youth—the next generation—with atheism. They ask for Bibles to use in spreading the Word of God. How can they spread the Word of God if they do not have it?

The Underground Church is like a surgeon who was traveling by train. The train collided with another train and hundreds of people lay on the ground, mangled, injured, dying. The surgeon walked among the dying, crying out: “If only I had my tools! If only I had my tools!” With these surgical instruments he could have saved many lives. He had the willingness … but he did not have the tools. This is where the Underground Church stands. It is so willing to give its all. It is so willing to give its martyrs! It is so willing to risk years in prisons! But all of its willingness is of no value if it does not have the tools with which to work. The plea of the faithful, courageous Underground Church to you who are free is: “Give us the tools—the Gospels, the Bibles, the literature, the help—and we will do the rest!”

This is an excerpt of Tortured for Christ (Chapter 7). To purchase this book, click here.