PREFACE
During my many travels to the various mission fields in the nations where we sponsor workers and projects, I have experienced many “divine appointments”; encounters with people and situations which years later proved to be of great significance both historically and spiritually. The beginning of one of these encounters took place the month I returned from Germany’s Mission, exactly 40 years ago. Below, I have published the story in full. It is a Christmas gift to you which I trust will encourage you in your faith walk with God.
A CHRISTMAS STORY by R.K. Ulrich
From my seat in the balcony, I glanced around the white cathedral’s sanctuary, festively decorated with hundreds of red poinsettias, filled to capacity with men and women in their best attire. The massive, magnificent pipe organ above the altar provided a majestic background for the 100 voice choir and full orchestra of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church (CRPC) as the magnificent annual Christmas performance of Händel‘s Messiah echoed throughout the building. Leaning back, while enjoying the rich beauty of the sights and sounds of the music, pondering the profound depth of scripture verses from Isaiah to Revelation describing our Savior, I began sobbing and simply could not stop. It was a heart cry of intercession on behalf of the hundreds of wonderful brothers and sisters I had met from the underground, suffering church in countries behind the Iron Curtain while serving a two year tenure with an East European Mission located in München, Germany. Just a few weeks prior to this, I had returned permanently to the States from my stay at the Mission with a commission from the Lord: a vision of a bridge spanning America, Europe, and the Soviet Union with the words, “Return to the States and be a Bridge – do not build one!“ I was to be a voice in the West, representing the believers who were suffering for their faith in the oppressive communist countries, while being a conduit for bringing resources from the believers in the West across this Bridge to the East (2. Cor. 9:6-15). During this concert, I had a sense that in God’s providence, this was a significant moment beyond what I could at the time see. RPC’s dynamic senior past, Dr. D. James Kennedy was well known for his strong stand against the evil of atheist communism, calling it with its rightful name a Religion. A few months later, via one of the teachers at their school< Westminster Academy, I was invited to the speak to the student on missions, and later, I was invited to participate at the church’s annual week-long missions conference. The Bridge was given a generous donation of $1,500 for my participation—the exact amount I needed to go on a mission trip to Romania.
MISSION TRIP TO ROMANIA
In the summer of 1984, I traveled to Romania under the auspices of the Mission in Germany. It was one of my many courier trips during which a co-worker and I would clandestinely deliver Bibles and other Christian material to our specific contact persons within the country. This time, the Director in Germany asked me if I would take a side-trip to the city of Cluj, located in Transylvania (a part of Romania dominated by ethnic Hungarians, home of the notorious Dracula ) to check out the situation for a Christian leader who had asked for help.
After the delivery of the prescheduled material to our precious believers, my co-worker and I drove through mountains and forests and arrived in Cluj late one the evening so that we could evade the infamous Securitate (secret police). We found the address, sneaked into the dingy apartment building, and tapped the secret signal on the appropriate door. A stately, elderly gentleman opened the door and, without a word, waved us into the apartment which indicated that he was a cultured, well read intellectual. He introduced himself as Dr. Istvan Tokes. Quietly, in German, he began to tell an incredulous story. He was a senior Professor of Theology at the Reformed Seminary in town, and had for years been intimidated and threatened by Ceausescu’s leaders to collaborate with the government’s atheist agenda against the Christian believers. “At times, the pressure became too great; I gave in and helped spread disinformation through the church”, he admitted, tears running down his cheeks. He continued, “I have a son, Laszlo, who is a youth leader in one of our churches in the city of Timisoara. There is revival among the youth there. Watching their faith and courage made me repent, so lately, I have also been openly speaking and standing up for the church of Jesus Christ!”
Istvan then told us that he had learned that government officials had secretly plotted to kill both him and his son — one to be caused by a car accident, the other by radioactive material placed in the door post of his house. He then handed me a typed three page statement in German, outlining details of Ceausescu’s atrocities against the church and a plea for him and his son’s life. Would I bring this document to America and give it to influential people, preferably in Washington DC, who could make their situation public? I accepted it, so after we prayed and said goodbye, I took the document, hid it in one of my boots — aware that, if discovered, I might be arrested and charged with Western espionage.
CONTACTING CRCP
On my ay back to the States, I pondered who to contact. I did not know any prominent American government officials! Back home, I translated the document into English. Suddenly, I remembered that the funds for this trip had actually been provided by CRPC — why not contact Dr. Kennedy? I made an appointment, and Dr. Kennedy graciously gave me ample time to present my plea for helping save the lives of these two servants of the Lord. “What can I do?” he asked. “Please inform people who can give this maximum exposure”, I said, while handing the original and translated documents over to him, “Ceausescu will never kill those two men if he knows it will give him bad press in America, and he might lose the Most Favored Nation Status.” Dr. Kennedy promised to pursue the matter. I left, confident that the Tokes family were in God’s hands and under His protective wings.
1989 — FALL OF THE IRON CURTIAN
In the late eighties we watched media reports on freedom movements emerging in Eastern Europe — from the Pope’s visit to Poland and the Solidarity uprising led by Lech Walesa, to an intensifying wave that, in the Fall of 1989, caused largely bloodless political upheavals in Poland, Hungary, then led to a surge of mostly peaceful revolutions in East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria, named “The Velvet Revolution.” Romania was the only Eastern Bloc country to overthrow its communist regime violently and execute its Head of State.
ROMANIA’S NICOLAE CEAUSESCU
Nothing matched what happened in Romania! For his 21 years as Romania’s president, Nicolae Ceausescu, one of Communism’s most cruel and oppressive dictators, kept up a reign of fear, suppressing all opposition with the help of the brutal Securitate, with the largest network of spies and informers in Eastern Europe. In December 1989, his downfall came as a result of his violent overreaction to public unrest over issues such as food shortages. A week later, I read an article in a major newsmagazine which featured Romania’s bloody revolution and revealed an incredulous tale. Following is a summary of events:
LASZLO TOKES — THE MAN WHO SPARKED THE REVOLUTION
It began on December 15, with demonstrations in the western city of Timisoara against the harassment of a dissident ethnic Hungarian Reformed Church pastor, Laszlo Tokes, who had the courage to speak up against the atrocities in his country. On that day, an order was served to remove Laszlo from his post, causing his congregation to demonstrate against the order, which was violently put down by government security forces. The revolt blazed a trail to Bucharest and the rest of the country. This soon swelled into a massive protest, in which slogans like “We want bread” soon turned into “Down with Ceausescu”. Ceausescu sought to restore his own authority, but amid bloody street battles on December 22, an angry mass of people stormed Ceausescu’s offices. He fled by helicopter, but was seized outside the city. In a summary court martial held in secret he and his wife, Elena, were accused of killing 60,000 people, and on December 25, Christmas day 1989, they were shot to death.
Dr. D. James Kennedy recounts in one of his books, “Interestingly, in the providence of God, I may have had a small hand in that situation. In the mid‑1980s, I had been asked by a woman missionary, working behind the Iron Curtain, to write a letter to Nicolae Ceausescu. She wanted me to tell him to stop harassing two pastors in Romania, a father and son who was a youth minister. Frankly, I felt such a letter would be in vain. Why would a Communist dictator hundreds of miles away listen to an American preacher? But I wrote it anyway, and I mentioned that the eyes of the world would be on the situation. After the tyrant’s fall, I received a note from the missionary thanking me for that letter, a letter I had forgotten all about.” She said that after my correspondence, ‘although the harassments did not stop against the Tokes family, they had diminished. The important part is that their lives were spared. The name of the minister was Laszlo Tokes, the man who had been instrumental in the fall of Communism in Romania and sparked the fall of the Iron Curtain!
From R.K.’s Corner
40 years ago this month, The Bridge International was established in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I had returned to Florida after living two years in Germany, where I had administrated the children’s department at an East European Mission in Munich combined with being a one of their clandestine couriers, bringing provision of Bibles and Christian educational material to persecuted believers in the underground churches behind the communist Iron Curtain. Upon my return to the States, I carried with me a vision God had given me during my last courier trip to Bulgaria: a bridge spanning between the United States, Europe and the Soviet Union with the commission to return to the States to “be a bridge – don’t build one”. I understood it to mean, don’t build an organization with costly overhead and structures, but be a bridge of living stones according to 1. Peter 2:4-10 where the foundation is based on servanthood relationships and the love of Jesus is the mortar holding them together.