Challenge from Abroad

We just got back from hearing a special speaker at a prayer room in the back of the local Christian bookstore. The minister and his wife are here from Romania, where they have a mission work, although they are natives of Holland. They are missionaries to the Gypsies. In fact, they have even adopted a Gypsy teenage girl, already having three children of their own.

He was a fascinating speaker, not only because of his powerful message, but also for his somewhat-broken English and interesting accent. I had no trouble understanding him except for a time or two, once when I asked his wife what he had said that made everyone laugh. He had been talking about the uniqueness of his native land, and said there is a common saying over there, that “God created the earth, but the Dutch created Holland.” He was referring to the fact that it is below sea level and surrounded by dikes.

His subject was “Unity in Prayer,” and at one point the speaker was emphasizing how important it is to make sure you have a strong relationship with God and have prayed for protection before you enter upon a venture for Him. He told how they and a group from their ministry had set out to have a service in a community of Gypsies one evening. It seems that in the traffic they encountered, there was a make-shift wagon being pulled by a carload of Gypsies, which was veering all over the road, causing one of their party to run into it. When the pastor got out to investigate, he found that there was a very inebriated driver pulling the wagon. “Why are you driving when you are drunk?” he demanded, taking the man’s shoulder and looking sternly into his face.

Just then the crowd of people who were in the car with the drunk man began assaulting the pastor, blaming him for the wreck. One man took a shovel from the wagon and began beating him. As he tried to ward off the blows, both physical and verbal, another started swinging a heavy chain over his head, hitting and injuring their victim. A side mirror of the vehicle had been damaged in the collision, and a woman, cursing and shouting, tore the mirror arm loose and struck him about the head, arms and shoulders with it. Finally, staggering and bleeding, the pastor began to rebuke the demons that were ruling in the brawl. This infuriated the people to near-animal status, their eyes almost glowing with rage and fury. Suddenly police cars showed up and the brawlers were arrested.

“I should have been better prepared in prayer!” the pastor admitted. “But I took a stand against Satan, anyway, and he was defeated! We had thirty people come to the Lord that night!” Explaining how easy it would have been to go home in discouragement and cancel the meeting, he stressed that perseverance and determination are vital in prayer and in resisting the enemy. He said that many people quit praying just when the breakthrough is ready to come. He compared prayer to a fuse on a stick of dynamite--it has been lit, and the sparks are traveling to the explosive, when we get tired of praying and give up, just before the explosion of answered prayer. An excerpt from an amazing message, delivered like a Dutch-uncle, in the land of Uncle Sam!