In The Refining Crucible
I can still vividly recall a time…like a season of engulfing peace, when we who came to be known as “the flower children” marched faithfully to the not-so-distant drum of a band of rock stars who, like the “Pied Piper” of Hamelin, also espoused the thesis that “All you need is love.”
The year 1967 AD, and the two decades preceding and following that period, were part of a remarkable era in the sociological evolution (or one might allow, “revolution”) of the day. While “The Beatles” gave the world a new global vernacular, it turned out in the end that Sergeant Pepper really had nothing new to tell us after all. But having been released in May of 1967, it managed to create its own energized theology, aspects of which have survived until today.
Yet, something else was arising behind the alluring persuasiveness of the day, and it came to be known as “The Jesus Movement.” As a young Christian, I remember first setting foot in Montreal’s EXPO ’67 – an incredible monument to humankind’s creativity and a watershed moment in the radicalized new “freedoms” and realities that since, and still now, are beset upon our physique. Innovation was the word of the day and we applied that connotation to everything… including our relationships. “Love” evangelists began to preach a foreign gospel based on “what feels good,” as Christ’s church of North America began a sincere transformation that both reaped and embraced a blossoming materialism. This caused many in the church to adopt a “fortress” mentality concerned with its provincial survival, as opposed to it being in touch with the corresponding global realities of the church that Christ died to establish.
Then something quite unexpected dawned upon the Canadian church through an American network of ministry friends, and this too happened in 1967. Word came of a remarkable and seemingly fearless Romanian pastor, Reverend Richard Wurmbrand, who was ransomed from the fading remnants of the Romanian Communist regime and then sponsored into the U.S. by counterparts of the Lutheran church. Richard, his wife Sabina, and their son Michael (Mihail), had spent the better part of the previous 14 years being either victimized or incarcerated under unimaginable circumstances, upon the government’s insistence that they renounce their Christian faith and ‘cease and desist’ any and all preaching of the Gospel of Christ. Richard’s defiance and fate were legendary. His inspiring boldness and utter refusal to comply with their insistent demands set him up for a journey and calling that very few, even to this day, can comprehend. Interestingly, it was also in the year 1967 (50 years prior to the issuance of this publication) that the Wurmbrands, facilitated by friends of the emerging U.S. “mission,” established a new charitable organization based in Oklahoma, which ultimately became known as The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM USA).
VOM USA established its missional objectives around the expressed purpose of coming alongside those Christian believers throughout the world who are being persecuted for their faith in Christ – with practical relief, support and advocacy – while “giving a voice to the voiceless” in the telling of their story (starting with Richard’s) to the North American church. Richard’s testimony and his personal experiences then set a precedent, paving the way for other voices to be heard, profoundly impacting the Canadian church of the day.
Though young, I was old enough to appreciate the seismic effects that were beginning to emerge in the church, and the continental catalyst to the reinvigoration of faith that was rising in my own heart, as a result of the Wurmbrand’s early ministry in North America – including his impact as a preacher and author in Canada.
In fact, Richard’s first published work, Tortured for Christ, so moved a young St. Thomas, Ontario couple (VOM Canada founders, Klaas and Nellie Brobbel) that four years later in 1971, the Wurmbrands and the Brobbels teamed up to establish a Canadian “sister mission” (fully independent of that in the U.S.) in the southern Ontario city of the Brobbel’s residence near London. The Wurmbrand’s witness and “story” (in person and in print) gave impetus to a shockwave that appeared to revolutionize the church. The question that may now be asked in today’s context is this: “Could such a ‘wave’ rise again?”
In the half-century that has followed, over ten million copies of Tortured for Christ have been sold and/ or given away, and hundreds of thousands of people have been confronted with the reality of Christian persecution throughout the world and challenged to engage with the VOM USA and VOMC missions as “partners” in our projects (now numbering 50 in over 35 countries for the Canadian office alone).
In November of 2014, in all humility, and with board and peer affirmation, I became the CEO of the Canadian mission. Having witnessed the transformative power of the stories of the persecuted, it came upon my heart that perhaps VOMC could be assisted in telling the stories of the afflicted in a renewed effort to activate a 1967-style revolution in the churches of North America…a modern-day “revival,” if you will, motivated by the compelling stories and realities of our brothers and sisters in peril because of their expressed faith in Christ. The “then and now” comparison, though, maybe that the current societal “soil” is more toxic than in ’67. But God is able!
Upon my inspection of the strengths and weaknesses of the VOMC organization, I stumbled across an archival piece of an old “black and white” film depicting a re-enactment of Richard Wurmbrand in his solitary cell. It was immediately evident to me that we could create a “one-man theatrical stage show” that would figuratively bring Richard back to life in the vernacular of the day, for the expressed purpose of retelling his story – in person – to today’s generation.
After two years of planning, including the writing of a 75-minute script by our writer/actor/ producer, Dennis Hassell, and under the direction of Tom Carson (along with other contributors), we developed a “pilot” series to facilitate seven “test” shows in and around the Greater Toronto Area. The audience response, as evidenced by our lobby interviews after the performances, was phenomenal, and national church enquiries have already pushed our Canada-wide touring schedule into the year 2018. Considering the crucible, in which every fibre and every ounce of faith that Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand had was tested during Richard’s 14 years of torture, it was only fitting that we title the play Solitary Refinement (a “play” on words that aptly describes what took place spiritually in their lives).
As we now respond to tour enquiries across Canada, allow me to invite you to pray that the power and blessing of God would come forth through such performances, and that many in the Canadian Christian community would be challenged to engage with VOMC and others in expanding the reach and effectiveness of the stories of those who are being increasingly persecuted for Christ. We’d like you and your church to be our guests and partners in bringing Solitary Refinement to your region.
For additional information, visit us online at www.vomcanada.com/touring or call 1-888-298-6423.
- Doug
