“Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.” Matthew 5:44
A received a text from my daughter this week with a link to the movie, “Sabina,” a presentation from the Voice of the Martyrs ministry. Since that part of the world is all over the news today, it piqued my interest to watch it! Sabina was born in that part of the world that is now the Ukraine. It’s a beautiful story of love for Christ and the power of forgiveness on display in spite of persecution. It’s rated PG13 because of the evil actions of the soldiers. It’s a powerful and compelling picture of God’s real work in dark places! Never underestimate the power of prayer and forgiveness when extended to your enemies!
Sabina Oster was born in 1913, in Czernowitz, now a part of Ukraine. She was born into a Jewish family in a city where education and culture were part of their life. She graduated from high school, then studied at the Sorbonne in Paris. She described herself as an atheistic, non-practicing Jew, out for a good time. She met and married Richard Wurmbrand and together, first he and then Sabina accepted Christ as their Savior. It was a huge step for both, but gradually, the power of the gospel became real in their lives. In their home in Bucharest, Romania, Richard eventually became a Lutheran pastor. The movie takes place about the time the Nazis moved into Romania. The government became part of the Axis powers of Europe and they immediately began to implement harsh anti-Jewish policies. They rounded up the Jews, killed them or sent them to the concentration camps in Germany and Poland. In all, over 300,000 Jews were killed in Romania during World War II! During the occupation, Sabina’s parents, two sisters, and one brother were killed by the Nazis. Also at that time, Sabina and Richard spent their time rescuing Jewish children from the ghettos where they were forced to live and taught them about Jesus in the bomb shelters. Eventually, they were arrested. “Love your enemies!”
After the war, the Russian troops poured into Romania and the Communists seized power. They attempted to control the churches, so Richard and Sabina began an effective “underground” ministry to their people while evading Russian soldiers. They traveled, smuggling in goods and food badly needed for the fleeing refugees. Sabina wasn’t afraid to speak to the Russian troops about her faith in Jesus. She organized Christian camps for church leaders and conducted street meetings for up to 5,000 people. This was the beginning of what would become “Voice of the Martyrs,” a missionary organization she and her husband founded to help the persecuted church. “Do good to those who hate you!”
So effective was the work of the Wurmbrands that Richard was arrested and spend a total of 14 years in Communist prisons, three of those in solitary confinement, suffering from the cold and receiving weekly beatings from his captors. Sabina’s faith was tested, and although she endured sorrow, loss of home and struggled for survival for her and her young son, she never gave up! She spent three years in a Romanian slave labor camp, leaving her young son to live on the streets! “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” Hebrews 13:5. She was offered freedom if she would divorce her husband and renounce her faith, but she refused. In 1964, Richard was released and returned home. He continued his work, but eventually came to the United States to tell his story and the stories of other persecuted peoples in Vietnam, China, North Korea, Cuba, and the Soviet Union. Today, Christians are daily threatened by radical Muslims and killed, but like Corrie Ten Boom said, “Jesus is Victor!” “Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you!” Matthew 5:44.
Your friend, Jean