Fourteen Years of Torture
Richard Wurmbrand was a Romanian pastor who spent 14 years in Communist prisons, including three years in solitary confinement in a cell 12 feet underground. He was tortured repeatedly for his faith.
Guards would beat the soles of his feet until they bled, carve crosses into his body, and burn him with hot pokers. They tried everything to make him deny Christ or inform on other Christians. He never broke.
Preaching to the Walls
In his underground cell, Wurmbrand would preach sermons to the walls. He composed hundreds of sermons in his mind, tapping them in Morse code to prisoners in adjacent cells. "Alone in my cell, I did not feel lonely," he later wrote. "The whole time I was in prison, I could feel God's presence."
Voice of the Martyrs
After his release, smuggled out to the West, Wurmbrand founded Voice of the Martyrs to advocate for persecuted Christians worldwide. When asked how he survived, he said: "I have seen Christians in Communist prisons with 50 pounds of chains on their feet, tortured with red-hot iron pokers, and yet singing. They knew that Christ was with them."
Forgiving His Torturers
He bore scars from the torture for the rest of his life - 18 deep wounds on his body. Yet he said, "I do not hate my torturers. I forgave them because I saw them as prisoners themselves, prisoners of the devil."
