On our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Laying Your Life on the Line for Christ,” I’m speaking with Virginia Prodan, who grew up behind the Iron Curtain in Romania, terrorized by dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Although he promised U.S. authorities that he would respect human and religious rights in order to gain most-favored-nation status and be awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in trade, Ceausescu’s regime confiscated Bibles, demolished churches, and persecuted Christians.
Virginia’s family members had their bank accounts seized by the government and their homes raided by armed communist sympathizers. The brutality and trauma Virginia experienced inspired her to become an attorney dedicated to the pursuit of truth and freedom.
Virginia began studying law as a teenager. To avoid wasting electricity at night, she got up every morning at 5:00 a.m. and studied outside, even in winter months. As a young adult, she entered a law school in Bucharest.
After she graduated, she worked as a human rights attorney in Communist Romania in the 1980s, where questioning the government could lead to imprisonment. Two years into her law practice, Virginia represented a client named Nestor, who exhibited a spirit of joy despite his circumstances. When he invited her to church, Virginia heard about Jesus as the Truth for the first time.
After her conversion to Christianity, her pastor – who was imprisoned for five years after the Securitate raided his church – discipled her and grounded her in Scripture. A few months later, persecuted Christians in Romania began asking her to defend them.
Soon, the Securitate abducted her and took her to headquarters to be interrogated. They threatened her with life in prison. In her spirit, she discerned that this was a divine appointment. She was there so the officers could see Christ in her. Her favorite verse became Psalm 50:15 – “Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
One day, a man walked into Virginia’s law office, pulled out a gun, and told her he was going to execute her. She shared the Gospel with the would-be assassin and watched him melt under God’s power. Amazingly, when she asked him to invite Christ into his heart, he accepted!
Then in 2010, a man came to see Virginia, who was then living in Texas. Shockingly, the man revealed that he was the Securitate agent who had been sent to kill her years ago in Romania. With tears in his eyes, he explained that after the revolution in Romania, he enrolled in theological seminary and had been pastoring for the past 20 years. His church even built a Christian school. “I don’t kill people anymore,” he said. “I bring them to life.”
Virginia says, “If truth lives in us, no power on earth can enslave us.”
You don’t want to miss this powerful conversation with Virginia Prodan on your local radio station, online, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, via Google Podcasts, or on our free phone app.
Virginia’s book Saving My Assassin is available for a gift of any amount, money that goes right back into ministry, providing hope and help to families just like yours.
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