Ana is a graduate. I asked her if she had ever wondered what God’s opinion about her was and she said she thought about this from time to time. I explained to her what God says about sin and she was touched. She knew she was going to hell, but she tried to escape it through good deeds. I told her what the Bible says about good deeds and that we can only be forgiven through Christ. This was something new for her.
Costica is an old Rroma man. He told me he wanted to kill himself two years ago. But when he tried to hang himself, he heard a voice telling him to stop. He used to be an alcoholic and also had a smoking addiction. I shared the Gospel with him and he understood he was going to hell. He listened to me carefully as I shared with him about forgiveness in Christ. He was very grateful to me for having shared those things with him.
Nelu and Fane are siblings and we grew up together. I haven’t seen them for about 30 years and I’ve been praying to be able to share the Gospel with them for about 26 years. The Lord, in His goodness, gave me this opportunity. Fane asked me, “Does God have time to think about me?” They didn’t know they were murderers. I spoke to them about sin and what God says about sin. They didn’t know they were going to hell. I explained to them Romans 6:23 and Nelu asked me, “What? Do you believe in hell?” Then I shared with them my wife’s experience when she went through clinical death. I also told them that the Bible speaks about everlasting fire. They were terrified and amazed. Then I shared the Good News with them and told them how Christ suffered God’s wrath in our place.
Cosmin is about 40 years old. He said he had never wondered what God thought about him. He told me that his two-year-old son had cancer and, seeing him suffer so much, he asked the Lord to take his life. But God had other plans and his son is still alive. God also gave him two daughters. These signs made him believe that there is something beyond this world. He said we can’t live by God’s standard, as we have to make compromises. I explained to him that he had to believe in God on His terms, as He asks us in His Holy Scripture. I told him it was important for him to read the Bible. I shared the Good News with him, but he always tried to justify himself. He accepted a Gospel tract I gave him.
Through God’s grace, I carried on the discipleship process with Joao, the student from Angola. Joao got baptized last summer in a Brethren Church in Romania. When I preached at his baptism, his heart was touched by an example I gave from my personal life. I shared how, after I got baptized, a colleague with whom I had shared the Gospel kept watching me for a year in order to see if I lived what I said. Joao experienced something similar. There was a group of students who were drinking alcohol and they mocked him. After sharing the Gospel with them, Joao shook their hands and left smiling. One of them had a Christian father and Joao’s attitude touched his heart. So, he asked for Joao’s phone number. He decided to repent and called Joao at midnight to tell him that God had touched his heart and that he wanted to turn to Him.
I told Joao how important it was for him to share the Word with other students. So, one day, he saw a group of African students and he received power and boldness to preach the Word to them.
I decided to teach him how to share his personal testimony, but the Spirit of God made me ask him about the way in which he shared the Gospel with other people. He said he talked to his Catholic colleagues about their religion and told them that it wasn’t okay to worship Mary etc.
His colleagues were against him and they started quarreling. Another time he met a disabled person and he read Isaiah 53, but without explaining the passage, so that persons started pitying Christ for having suffered so much. I started teaching him how he should preach the Word. When he left, he met a man on the train and asked him directly if he knew what God’s opinion about him was. This man, Gabi, said he believed God had a good opinion about him. He didn’t know he had killed and that he was going to hell. Gabi said he was an atheist, but in the end he realized that there is a God and that He is going to judge him.
When he got back in the campus, Joao talked to his roommate, Carlos, who is also from Angola. Carlos used to mock Joao, but this time, when Joao asked him what he thought God’s opinion about him was, he replied he believed that God had a very bad opinion about him. He understood he was a murderer, an adulterer, a thief and a liar and he was going to hell. He said he didn’t want to go to hell. Then Carlos Freir came in and he was terrified by what he heard from the Word of God. He didn’t know that God had crushed His Son for our sins. In the end, Carlos Freir said he wanted to repent. The reaction of these students was so different now when Joao preached Christ and not a religion.
Then Joao met Teo and Serban in Teo’s room. Teo believed that God had a good opinion about him, but, after Joao shared the Gospel with them, both students realized they were going to hell. Teo also realized he didn’t really believed in God.
Joao met a girl from Gabon and Abdul, a Muslim. As Joao was sharing about Christ with this girl, Abdul told her not to believe what Joao was saying. The devil was trying to prevent her from believing in Christ. Still, Joao kept sharing with her and she realized she was going to hell.
Edna is Joao’s high school mate. She believed that God had a good opinion about her, but she was deeply touched when she heard what God says about sin and judgment. Edna realized she was under God’s wrath and she needed forgiveness. So, she said she wanted to repent. This girl used to tell Joao that she wanted to stay Catholic.
Jeanpiere is a Nigerian born in France. He is working in Cyprus, in the Muslim region. He said he was discriminated there. He believed he was a Christian, because he had received Lord Jesus into his life. I told him what the Bible says about sin and he realized he was a sinner and he was going to hell. He realized he hadn’t been saved.
Don is serving as the HeartCry Coordinator for Eastern Europe. As an itinerant evangelist, his pulpit ministry is directed toward preaching on the inner life of the believer and the spiritual need of the lost. With HeartCry, his ministry includes organizing Bible conferences and corresponding with the HeartCry missionaries in Europe. He and his lovely wife Cindy live in Tuscumbia, AL.
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