BELFAST RB BOOKLET 2020 - Flipbook - Page 41
Ci t y of Belf ast Grand Bl ack Chapt er - Dem onst rat i on Bookl et 2020
sound whatsoever for even the guards wore Eventually Richard, Sabina and their son left
felt on the soles of their shoes, later en route to Norway before making their way
recounting how he maintained his sanity by across the North Channel to England.
sleeping during the day and staying awake at
Richard, also known as Nicolai Ionescu,
night so he could better exercise his mind and began his ministry of being a voice for
soul in composing and delivering a sermon.
persecuted Christians in the West by first
Due to his extraordinary memory, he was of all writing his testimony of years of
able to recall more than three hundred and persecution, entitled .. Tortured for Christ.
fifty of those, a selection of which he
He also wrote eighteen other books on the
included in his book 'With God in Solitary subject with many variations of his works
Confinement' first published in 1969.
having since been translated into more than
Part of this time, he communicated with sixty-five different languages
other prisoners by tapping out Morse Code
Later on, the family moved to the United
signals on the wall. In this way he continued States and in 1967 officially began a ministry
to be 'a sunlight' for his fellow inmates rather called Jesus to the Communist World being
than dwell on the lack of physical light even committed to serving his wider persecuted
though he continued to be systematically Christian family. It was later renamed The
beaten and tortured by his captures.
Voice of the Martyrs and this work continues
This included mutilation, burning and today in more than sixty plus countries where
being locked in a large frozen icebox. His Christians are still persecuted for their faith.
body bore the scars of physical torture for
In 1990 Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand
the rest of his life where he later recounted returned to Romania for the first time in
that the soles of his feet were beaten until twenty-five years where The Voice of the
the flesh was actually torn off, then the Martyrs soon opened a bookstore and its own
next day being beaten again to the bone, printing facility in Bucharest, ironically located
adding that there were no words to in a basement space offered by the City's new
describe the physical pain.
Mayor, which was sited under the former
Sabina was released after three years and dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's plush palace
then Richard shortly afterwards only to be where Richard had been held for long spells
immediately re-arrested as he left the in solitary confinement. However even in his
guardhouse although he was subsequently imprisonment Richard continued to pray for
released during a 1964 general amnesty.
the Christian ministry throughout his
Concerned with the possibility that the homeland.
Wurmbrands would be again forced into
Whilst Richard Wurmbrand wrote
further detention without trial, both the emphatically against Communism; at
Norwegian Mission to the Jews and the the same time he continued to maintain
Hebrews Christian Alliance had to a hope and compassion even for those
negotiate a ten-thousand dollar 'goodwill' who tortured him. He always saw his
bounty with the Communist authorities to captors in a different image; not as they
allow the family to leave Romania.
were, but as they will be, for he also
Although reluctant to vacate his homeland, foresaw in his own persecutors a future
Richard was convinced by other underground Apostle Paul and the jailer in Philippi,
church leaders that he had to become a voice who later became a convert.
to the world for their underground church.
Sabina died on August 11th, 2000 and on the 17th of February the following
year, Richard himself passed away at the age of 91, in Torrance Hospital,
California. According to a 2006 Mari Romania poll, Pastor Richard Wurmbrand
was voted in fifth place amongst the greatest Romanians of all time.
IN MEMORY OF THE FALLEN - 39 - AND THE FUTURE OF THE LIVING