Share Your Memories of Richard Wurmbrand
Rev. Richard Wurmbrand had an impact on many lives, but none have heard every story. Please use the comment area below to share your story of how Richard Wurmbrand’s mission blessed you.
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Until reading Pastor Wurmbrand’s book “Tortured for Christ” and receiving newsletters from the Voice of the Martyrs, I had never known that our brothers and sisters in Christ suffered that much from their belief. I thank God for this man’s life and his ministry. God bless you!
Richard Wurmbrand. How I loved that man!
My acquaintance with Richard began about 1991. I don’t remember the exact date. I had been asked to write a monthly intercession letter for FGBMFI of Hawaii. I had read “Tortured for Christ” more than once, along with ”In God’s Underground”, and also the VOM newsletter. I couldn’t get enough of Richard’s writing and kept buying his books. At one point, because I wanted to quote him in my newsletter, I contacted VOM offices to ask permission. I was told it was okay as long as I gave credit and sent them a copy of what I wrote. This I did and sometime later I received a phone call. The voice said, “My name is Richard Wurmbrand, do you know who I am?” My instant reply was, “Yes sir, I do.”. Richard and Sabina were coming to Hawaii to hold some meetings and were looking for someone to help guide them around the area. I instantly not only agreed to do that but to host them at my home as well.
They spent about two weeks at my home while I helped set up meetings and escorted them when I could. During those precious days Richard and Sabina proved to be all and more I could have expected from his writing.
I stood awed in the presence of this humble and loving man, 6 foot four in his prime, now shrunken to 6 foot, and racked with pain from his neuropathy ridden legs and feet to his scarred and debilitated body from the punishments he had received from his communist captors. Yet his demeanor and bearing exuded the Spirit of Christ. Gentle, Kind, Loving, and filled with Forgiveness, especially to those who had mistreated him. In Richard, I could sense the Spirit of Christ who was able to say, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Evenings as we visited, he would watch the news and make lists of people’s sufferings for his prayers. Several times he awakened me with a single syllable utterance of pain, I assumed as he awoke from nightmares. He had told me that even though he had left prison, prison had never left him.
I recall reading in one of his books that at one time his captors ‘baptized’ the Christians in a tank filled with the toilet buckets from the cells. Only Christ can empower a man to forgive such acts, but Richard had received such power. Knowing him changed my life forever, as the Spirit of Love that exuded from this tortured servant of Christ let me understand that ‘we can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us’.
I remember his receiving mail in packets from the VOM office. Letters in many languages, most of which he answered in their own tongue. Once, as he completed a letter in German and began one in Russian, I asked him how many languages he spoke. He replied, “some say 17 or 18, some say 24 or 25. The only thing I know for certain is that anytime I need to speak or read a language, I seem to be able”.
From that time, until the last year or so of his life, when I could no longer get calls through to him, I called and visited with him every couple of months. He was always a joy to talk to, always filled with joy at the most recent good news from the suffering Christians around the world, and filled with the wisdom and peace that ‘passes understanding’. There are many memories, and I read and re-read his books. They are filled with awe and wonder for me to this day. I have no idea how many of them I have given away to share him with others.
Lest we forget the suffering Church, let us bow our heads and join in his prayer for them.
Ray Grace
Heppner, Oregon
This book will change your life! If anyone is scared to read this book based on the fact that they think it will disturb them too much, please don’t look at “Tortured for Christ” in this list. By the time I finished this book, I was sobbing uncontrollably in the kitchen. I read it on my job and cried in the break room, I cried in my room, I was just extremely touched. But it wasn’t just because of their suffering. I was inspired by the furious love this people had for God! We take so much for granted in our cushy Christian lives. We worry about bills that we can’t be for expenses we racked up ourselves when someone in China is having church in a crowded cave for hours and hours because some preacher from America visited and they don’t have bibles, so they want to know EVERYTHING that he knows. My prayer after reading this book was “God, I wanna know you like that. I wanna love you like that!” I live a very righteous standard Christian life. I try to be like Job and hate evil and Joseph and flee from it if I have to. But after reading this book, I feel like my entire Christian walk has been redefined. My heart has been charged with so much love. I have told everyone I know about this book. Read it and have someone else read it. It will change lives!
In the 1980s Richard came with his wife to speak at my Messianic Jewish Congregation. I had read Tortured for Christ and knew who he was. I also had the privilege of serving them communion. It was a thrill to meet and talk to them.
I was 11 years old when I attended a confference with my family back in 1998. At the time I did not know who Richard Wrumbrand was, I just watched him as he approached the stage.The crowd was in complete silence, slowly, everyone there started to stand up and soon after to cry, he was silent. I didn’t understand what has happening, but I did feel the strong presence of God in that place. As I watched the tears streaming down the face of so much people, I began to wonder about who this man was. There are only a few things I remember from what he said. At the end he was patient enough to let me and my sister take a picture with him. When I got back to my country, Colombia(South America), I was still thinking about that conference and what I had witnessed, when I found the book “Tortured for Christ” at my Grandmother’s house. I read the book as fast as I could possibly do, sometimes I would have to take little breaks because of my eyes and how the hurt from the crying. I started talking about this at school, and encouraging others to love God and to share the gospel, this was not always the most popular thing to do, but I remember thinking that this was just a very small price I was know willing to pay. This happened when I studied at the university aswell.
Now I’m 24, and even though I have read the book so many times, it still amazes and inspires me to love God more than I love myself, and to be willing to do whatever it takes so I can follow Jesus every day of my life.
I met Richard and Sabine twice, when he spoke at Messianic Congregations with which I was affiliated. I am in my late sixties now, and I would say that Richard Wurmbrand is the greatest man I ever met. Sabine, tiny, with her radiant smile and servant spirit, was easy to overlook, but she too, like Richard, fully deserved the title “Saint.” It is not only Richard’s suffering and how he bore it; it is not only his all encompassing love of God in Christ that make him great. It is also his astounding memory, his intellect, and the quality of his soul. I cannot imagine anyone whose unbelief would not be melted in a conversation with Richard: his stories, his attentiveness and love, and the weight of his soul were palpable. The Letter to the Hebrews speaks of those who suffered for their faith “of whom the world was not worthy.” Without a doubt, Richard and Sabine were such people. May their holiness inspire us to be more than we settle for. Such people are the strongest possible argument for the existence of God.