Romania: The Miracle Revolution

Volume 1 1990

The border guards greeted Us with, “Welcome to FREE Romania!”
In my 23 years experience of working in Romania, I have never seen anything like that which is taking place today. People in the street are talking, laughing and greeting one another. No one is a stranger. We travelled over 500 miles by car within Romania, and people along the road smiled, waved and with two fingers extended gave us the “V’ for victory sign. Soldiers and police did likewise.
The atmosphere in the country is radically different. No longer did our hosts turn the radio or tape player on before we could talk in their homes. The people didn’t put their telephones under cushions for fear of Securiate listening devices.
As we drove across the country there was a noticeable absence of any reference to socialism. There were no red stars or hammer and sickle insignia. Instead, church bells rang joyfully. Every Romanian tri-color flag had a hole cut in the yellow middle stripe where the words “Republica Socialista Romania” had been. Gasoline is no longer rationed. Lines at the pumps are much shorter; average waiting time 30 minutes versus 12 to 15 hours. There is no longer a prohibition on Sunday driving.
You can imagine the peasants joy in villages earmarked for destruction under the Ceausescu regime. For some the reprieve had come just hours before the bulldozers began their awful task. For the village of Vladiceasca, and several hundred others, it was already too late. Today there is only a barren snow covered field where for generations a thriving little community had lived and loved and worked together.
Christian leaders are concerned about a spiritual vacuum in the country due to the long and oppressive atheist regime. Ninety percent of the evangelical churches have inadequate facilities because the previous regime denied permission to build, remodel or even redecorate. Many fine churches were bulldozed! They do not have literature. They need training for child evangelism. Potential Christian leaders must be educated; new churches built to replace those destroyed by the atheists. They do not have a Christian newspaper or magazine.
Now that Romania is open, responsible leaders expressed their concern to us that the country might be flooded with all the negatives of the West including New Age, pornography, cults, black magic, heavy metal and AIDS. Romania needs the Christian alternative as quickly as possible to fill the vacuum left by years of godless atheistic teaching.
The question on everyone’s mind is, “How will Romania look in 2 years? Secular or sacred?” The answer to that question may well lie in what we as Christians do now. Romania has the spiritual possibility of being the fountain of revival for the whole of Eastern Europe.

Bill Bathman
President—In Touch Mission International