Every evening at 10:00 for the past year, thousands of Romanian Christians have stopped what they were doing and knelt in prayer for the July 4-6, 2008, Franklin Graham Festival of Hope.
And hope is exactly what has led the country to this moment.
Not 18 years ago, Romania’s communist ruler Nicolae Ceausescu held the church under the scrutiny of his secret police. Ceausescu flattened blocks of historic churches in the country’s capital city of Bucharest to build a multi-lane road leading to the Palace of the Parliament, where his authority was centered.
But in 1989, when the regime attempted to silence Laszlo Tokes–a pastor in Timisoara’s Hungarian Reformed Church–from speaking out against the communist leader’s human rights violations, people protested in the plaza outside the church, now called Victory Square.
Days later, larger protests materialized in numerous cities throughout the country, and within weeks the revolution overthrew the communist ruler. Leaders drafted a constitution in the coming years, and the country became a republic.
UNDER COMMUNISM
Victory Square is the same plaza where crowds of more then 150,000 had come to hear Billy Graham preach in 1985. Franklin Graham accompanied Billy Graham on that trip, and he recounts the experience:
“I remember when we got to Timisoara, my father was going to preach in the Orthodox Church. … Under communism, you could only speak on church property.
You have tens of thousands of people outside, and when my father gets out of the car, the people are yelling, ‘Bil-ly, Bil-ly, Bil-ly,’ and he just held up the Bible.
The police locked their arms together to try to hold the crowd back, and they were surging forward. … The people of Romania were so starved to hear the truth that they were going to risk their lives to come hear my father preach.”
Read Billy Graham’s recollection of the 1985 event
ROMANIA TODAY
Today, even after the fall of communism, Romania is undergoing social and moral crises, with child labor, poverty, and drug abuse among its primary concerns. One-third of the workforce has left the country seeking stability elsewhere in Europe, and this shift has split up families and left children orphaned.
With a population of about 340,000, Timisoara is the fourth-largest city in the country. It is located in the Danube River Basin in western Romania and is home to five state universities and several private colleges.
Also called “The City of Flowers,” Timisoara has numerous parks and gardens sprinkled amid its large, baroque-style buildings. The striking architecture features domes, arches, balconies, columns and floral details. But the outer beauty of the city cannot mask its struggles.
SPIRITUAL CLIMATE
Approximately five percent of Timisoara’s population claims to be an active believer in Jesus Christ, although many countries in Europe have only one percent of people claiming to follow Christ. The Greater Europe Mission reports that in Europe, one church exists for every one hundred churches in the United States.
Most in Timisoara describe themselves as Romanian Orthodox but are not practicing. Even under democracy, the government of Romania finances and approves the Romanian Orthodox church. Timisoara has a relatively small number of evangelical believers, although the Festival announcement rally last year drew 2,400 people. The key to the Festival is the unification of believers.
The pastor of a Baptist church in Timisoara writes, “After more than 15 years since the fall of Communism, we are aware of the fact that Romania needs not only economic progress, material wellbeing or social peace, but it needs especially peace with God.”
Local leaders believe that the church again will lead Romania into a new era. The Festival of Hope, or “Speranţei Festival” (in Romanian), will be held in the Dan Paltinisanu Stadium, which has a capacity of more than 32,000 people. It will be the largest event of its kind in the recent history of the country.
“We believe that the [Festival of Hope] 2008 in Timisoara will be a key event in the spiritual restoration of Romania and Europe,” writes a local pastor.
A NEW DAY
Up to this point, more than 13,000 people have committed to pray and be a part of the Festival’s Operation Andrew strategy, so named after the disciple of Christ who brought his brother to meet Jesus. Through Operation Andrew, believers pray for others and invite unbelieving friends, colleagues and neighbors to the Festival to hear a Gospel message.
Among the hundreds of activities held in preparation for the Festival have been a youth concert with thousands in attendance; a weekly Festival radio program to encourage local believers; sessions of the Billy Graham Christian Life and Witness course in 25 locations; youth meetings with more than 5,000 in attendance; women’s conferences that brought together nearly 2,000 women; and a Billy Graham International School of Evangelism that united more than 600 Romanian pastors for three days of teaching, prayer, worship, dialogue, and growth.
One could argue that a movement is underway.
The Festival will provide simultaneous translation into various languages, including Hungarian, Serbian, and sign language. And live satellite feeds will broadcast the Festival events to locations around the country so that more people can attend.
The program will change every day but will always include a message of hope from Franklin Graham and performances from the Festival choir, which boasts 3,000 local members.
Check billygraham.org next week for live coverage, new photos and exciting videos from Timisoara.
Most of all, please pray that God will be glorified through the proclamation of His Word throughout Romania, where a movement of the Holy Spirit is needed to unite and empower people to live with hope.
