so about our missions conference, we have it every year at the start of March. it's from Sunday morning to Wednesday evening, with meetings in the evenings and sometimes even meetings throughout the day. this year we had 10 countries represented along with 9 states. all together, we had about 50 guests. it was wonderful. we meet some new friends. none that i think i will quickly forget. actually i hope and pray that i will remember them all the days of my life. they lived a life of sacrifice.
the first guy i will share with you about it a man from Moldova. during the Communist years, Christianity was not tolerated, it was persecuted because "religion was a crutch, and it was only for weak people". this man grew up in a Christan home, which meant enduring persecution at an early age. he shared while he was 10 years old he was at school and the teacher would ask questions like "did anyone go to church this weekend?" or they would pick him out an ask him because they knew of his religion. he did not lie, he would always tell the truth, and one time the teacher beat him over the head with a rod because he went to church. this young man grew up loving God, then a time came when he had to make a decision what he was going to do, give up God and join the Party, or continue his relationship with Jesus. as all wise people do, he choose Jesus. as time went on and the persecution continued he knew that somehow he had to get Bibles in the hands of the believers, otherwise they would never grow. to make a long story short, he found some other men willing to live a life of sacrifice and began to run an underground printing press. God has done so many miracles in this man's life, and through this man. it is an intricate story, but as this man spoke i knew he loved God to the highest degree. he has a book called "While Children Slept" and i'm in the process of reading it (Esther, i'm going to bring it to you next time i see you). i have hardly been able to put it down. he has 7 children, and they too learned to live a life of sacrifice, when the children were young they were on a journey to deliver Bibles, and they got pulled over by the KGB , now where they hid the Bibles was they took out the back car seat and made a seat out of Bibles, the 2 children were in the back seat and the mother cleverly decided to have them "play possum" pretending they were asleep, the young man knew he'd be caught, but the KGB officer saw the children sleeping and decided not to search the car. this is one of many instances of miracles in his life. however, there were so many people involved and they took EXTREME persuasions. things that we would never think about today. last night as all of our guests stood on the platform to pray for us, we returned the favor and prayed for them. and i couldn't take my eyes off of this man who is now somewhere in his mid to late 60's. i had laid eyes on someone who risked his life and his families life for the Kingdom of God. he not only did it in the face of persecution, but also, did it breaking the law. during the meeting he said so many things happened, and that he would tell us some stories, and there were other stories in the book, but there were some stories that he would never tell because he would much rather receive God's reward in heaven than men's applause. i believe he really got touched over these few days.
now for the next man, his name is David Davis, he is from New York City and was in Broadway plays and the whole bit (seeing him i had no trouble visioning this), him and his wife moved to Israel. they have a church on Mount Carmel, and they also opened a rehab for Jewish and Arab men, together. they are having quite a bit of success. people all over the world are amazed how this works. there have even been Jewish men that have fallen in love with Arab women and have been married, and vice versa. it's really incredible, i think it touched me so much because that's what we do here at Heartland.
the next man i want to talk about it quiet remarkable. he's 87 years old and is a Holocaust survivor. we went to the meeting yesterday to hear his story, and wow, what a story. he has a very thick German accent, and was quiet comical, but very real. he told the story how he and his family got kicked out of several countries because they were Jewish. he told the stories about how no one knew him and his family was Jewish in Poland, but the school teacher began to ask questions because they wanted to take a survey of their students, like "who is catholic?" "who is prodastant?" and the big question "who is Jewish?" he was the only Jew in his class. from there on he was treated differently. when things first started to get real rough, the Jewish people could not go to the market until 10:00. the farmers all brought their produce very early in the morning and by 10:00 99% of their wares were sold, and what little was left, cost a high price. i believe he was rushed in his speaking and skipped around a lot so it was hard to make sense of a lot of what he was saying. anyway, he said that he went to concentration camps, and one camp he was caught for doing something so they made him eat human waste, another time he switched numbers with another man so he could be with his son and Max could be with his father. he almost got caught, but the guard showed him some mercy for some reason. also, he talked about "the showers" where his brother died. he talked about how for 3 months his dad saved his life. his father worked in the kitchen and towards the end of the shift, he would cut a potato in 2 and put 1/2 in each of his sleeves and sneak it to his son. Max said that it was a raw potato, and they crunch really loud, so he had to chew very very slowly so he wouldn't be caught, and that's how he stayed alive in that camp. another story was they got moved to another place and the Jewish people had to build their own ghetto. he said out of all places, it was on a Jewish burial plot. the soldiers made them take down the grave markers, and make a road or something like that out of them. the stories went on and on and on. it was amazing. one of the most remarkable things was he was #2 on Schindler's list. he was one of the 11,000 that Schindler saved. i think i could talk forever about this. it's so very very sad. i did not know this until the evening, but Max IS NOT a Messianic Jew. but what he said from the pulpit, was amazing. he said that he has never seen people this happy. he's never seen kids this beautiful and this full of joy (our elementary lead worship last night, and did a dance). he was so impressed, he's going to go to India with one of our missionaries who is from there. i believe that his eyes have been opened to the goodness of God! i believe he will be saved, and part of it will be because of this conference.
John and Grace were here (they are spiritual parents to Ms. Jan) John is 97, and Grace is 94. they have been in the ministry for 70 years! they were missionaries on the Ivory Coast in Africa for many years and came back to the states to start Shalom ministries. last night they got an award for a life of excellence or something like that.
well, i guess i'm done rambling about this now, it was just wonderful, and i wanted to share it with you.
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