Sabina Wurmbrand: Radical Faithfulness, Beautiful Forgiveness

Dannah Gresh: In a Communist camp, Sabina Wurmbrand experienced beatings, loneliness, hunger . . . and she experienced the love of Jesus.

Sabina Wurmbrand: Jesus Himself would know us. Sometimes it was very, very heavy. Jesus Himself would lift the veil for a fraction of a second and show us His beauty. 

Dannah: This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, coauthor of You Can Trust God to Write Your Story, for Friday, May 13, 2022. I’m Dannah Gresh.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Speaking of trusting God to write your story, is it possible that you are going through a difficult trial today? I think all of us can say we have difficult things going on in our lives in this season. So I want to remind us of a precious verse in James 1:12. It says, “Blessed is the one who endures trials, because when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.”

We are about to be encouraged to stand firm in any and every trial by listening to the story of Sabina Wurmbrand. Wow, does that bring back memories for me. As a child I can remember hearing the story of Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand—a Romanian pastor and his wife who suffered greatly for the cause of Christ.

Sabina at different times in her life was imprisoned and starved. But that’s not all. She went through something far more difficult. She was constantly aware of the suffering of those she loved. And I think it can be even more difficult to watch others suffer than to suffer ourselves.

As we see how the Lord sustained Sabina with His grace, you are going to be encouraged to look to Him for grace for any trial you go through. You’ll get perspective on how to trust Him when the people you love are hurting. And you’ll get a vision for how God may want to use your suffering to launch you into new seasons of fruitfulness and ministry.

Sabina Wurmbrand is featured in a new book published by Revive Our Hearts called (Un)Remarkable: Ten Ordinary Women Who Impacted Their World for Christ.

A number of guests will help us fill in parts of the story of Sabina Wurmbrand. The clips you’ll hear today come from Voice of the Martyrs Radio. To hear the entire programs these clips are taken from, you can hear them at VOMRadio.net. 

Here’s Dannah to introduce our first guest.

Dannah: John Grooters has directed two movies about Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, one focused on Richard called Tortured for Christ. The other is called Sabina. He says Richard and Sabina didn’t begin their marriage as heroes of the faith.

John Grooters: But when they meet each other, I hate to burst your bubble, but they are hedonists, atheists of the first order coming out of the Roaring Twenties with a lot of skill and a lot of beauty and a lot of talent. They kind of have the world “by the tail.”

They lived; they loved, and they get married. So it is the love story of these two beautiful people who are rising stars. But then, the story starts to take a turn.

Dannah: Richard Wurmbrand contracted tuberculosis. He spent time away resting and recuperating. And during this time of reflection, he was challenged by the truth of the gospel. Soon after coming back home, he came to faith in Christ.

Sabina didn’t attend Richard’s baptism. 

John: The reason she didn’t come was she intended for Richard to find her dead body when he got home. 

Dannah: She was going to commit suicide during the baptism.

John: She was so distraught that he was going to take this step that she said, “If we can’t have the life I wanted, then we wouldn’t have life at all. And when he would find my dead body, Richard would realize what a terrible choice he had made.”

Dannah: But God spared Sabina’s life. Over time, her wild lifestyle didn’t satisfy. She saw something in Richard’s life and she wanted it, and she came to faith in Christ as well.

Not long after, Richard began preaching. Sabina became a pastor’s wife. But ministering in Romania at the start of World War II was very challenging. Richard and Sabina both came from Jewish families, and anti-semitism was on the rise in Romania.

John: You have this crucible of history in the twentieth century. Romania is a country the size of the state of Colorado, once known as “the breadbasket of Europe.” Bucharest was once called “little Paris.” Then the rise of the National Socialists, or as we know them, the Nazis. When World War II commences, the Romanians are in the cahoots with the Nazis. That’s the side they are on. 

Dannah: Soon, Richard and Sabina were not only proclaiming the truth of God’s Word, they were also living it out by helping Jews escape the Nazis. Eventually, it got both Richard and Sabina captured.

John: The very first time they got picked up by the Nazis, it’s the first time either of them have been arrested. It’s certainly the first time either of them had been beaten. They don’t start out as experts in this field. They don’t start out like, “Yes, we suffer for Jesus.”

They have like the rest of us, fear. The very first time they meet in the prison she says, looking at the scar on his face, “Was it horrible?”

He says to her, “There was pain. I will not lie to you.”

But later in that same scene he says, “I am grateful to be among the beaten by His grace rather than to be among those who beat.”

This is the beginning of that deeper understanding that they begin to live out—of what it means to be Christ followers, understanding Jesus’ call. This is so radical, to turn the other cheek. If the enemy strikes you on one cheek . . . If someone says carry my pack a mile and I carry it two miles.

This kind of radical thing that we hear about in Sunday school, that we read about in the Bible, it becomes the Word made flesh once you are put in that situation. No one I know wants to be put in that situation. At that point, you start to live out the words of Christ. Then, we are actually becoming transformed in His image—which really is the goal of all Christians.

Dannah: As World War II drew toward an end, Romania was released from Nazi control only to be taken over by Communists influenced by the Soviet Union.

John Grooters begins the movie Sabina in this time period. He describes the scene.

John: There are these three German Nazis who are on the run in the city they used to terrorize, Bucharest. They are on the run because the Soviets have come. There are some Nazi soldiers who haven’t escaped the country and they are in hiding. So the tables have turned, or as we say, “The hunters have become the hunted.”

These three Nazi soldiers are told of one house that may give them some help—food and shelter. The address is the home of Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand. They knock on the door, and Sabina sits down and offers some assistance to this enemy of hers. It is an enemy of unbelievable depth. This is an enemy who has imprisoned her husband three times and her twice and has beaten them. Worse than that, it is an enemy who has exterminated her beloved family and all of her relatives.

Yet, when faced with that enemy, she gives them shelter. The Germans say, “Why would you do this? I would never do this for you when the Reich recaptures Bucharest, which we surely will do.

She says, “I’ll protect you from the Russians. I can’t protect you from the wrath of God.”

Dannah: The Reich did not recapture Bucharest. As the cold war began, Romania was ruled by an oppressive Communist regime.

In 1945, the Romanian Communist Party convened religious leaders from across the country. They called the meeting the Congress of the Cults. One by one, religious leaders stood up and praised the new government.

John: What’s happening on stage is the church is capitulating to the Communists who have committed to increasing their pay. The church has really been compromised by the Communist Party, which is atheist to its core.

Richard and Sabina are sitting in the audience getting frustrated. “This isn’t how it should be.” She says, “You should speak.”

He says, “If I say, you know you will lose a husband.”

Then one of Sabina’s famous lines is, “I don’t need a coward for a husband.”

Dannah: Richard did get up, and he did share the truth of the Bible, and he did denounce Communism. And as Richard predicted, Sabina “lost” her husband in a sense. He was arrested in 1948. 

Sabina didn’t know what happened to her husband. More than once, government spokespeople told her Richard had died. 

Richard was actually in prison, facing beatings, torture, and solitary confinement. He preached to himself sermons and recited Scripture until his captors started drugging him. Even when he couldn’t think straight because of the drugs, his heart cried out to God. Richard spent a total of fourteen years in prison for his faith in Christ. 

Sabina was arrested in 1950 and spent three years in a forced labor camp. Here’s Sabina, reminding herself—and us—of truths we can stand on in the middle of trials. In the prison camp, she filled her mind with truth like this.

Sabina: I have a famous God. The God of Israel and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. I have a heavenly Father, a very famous God. Then I have a Lord—the Lord Jesus Christ—the Savior of Israel. He is my Savior, my Teacher, my Lord, and my Friend.

Then I have a very famous Book, the Bible. In prison cells where we didn’t have any book, neither the Bible nor any bit of paper, the Word which we kept in our hearts, a Word from this famous Book, the Bible, could give new life and new hope to those in despair.

Dannah: In the prison work camp, Sabina faced beatings and hard labor. She was hungry and even would eat grass to survive. In the middle of all that suffering, she went through periods of doubt when it felt like she was far from God. But she also experienced His presence in a whole new way. 

Sabina: The prison was a very hard place. The days could not be counted in years. I say my husband has made fourteen years in prison. Every day is twenty-four hours. And every hour has sixty minutes. For this reason, minute by minute and day by day, it is a very hard time. The human heart so very quickly loses our vision of God. It very quickly sees a dark prison cell. The longings, the hunger, the mockery of the Communists. But God knows how we are. 

He knows every one in a dark prison cell. The humans could not reach the Christians. Jesus Himself would know us and let us know He is Lord. Sometimes when it was very, very heavy—hungry, beaten, mocked, and forsaken by all men—Jesus Him would lift the veil for a fraction of a second and show us His beauty, the beauty of Paradise. So we would get new strength.

Even those who did not know God saw the glory of God shining over the faces of God's children. Those in despair who didn’t know God got strength from the children of God who were comforted by their own Savior.

Dannah: When you and I walk through difficulties, I hope we will remember Sabina in that prison camp. She experienced a closeness to the Lord she hadn’t felt before. Cole Richards is President of Voice of the Martyrs. He says the lives of Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand show us why we can have joy in the Lord even in terrible circumstances.

Cole Richards: Each of us can experience a fulfilling life of joyful discipleship in any circumstance. Even in a prison as with Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, even with Sabina in a forced labor camp, she experiences a meaningful and even joyful life of discipleship because everything that she is doing is for eternity. This is what we should aspire to. We should aspire to make our lives count for Christ.

In doing that, it is an honor and a joy to spend ourselves, to give something, to become a living sacrifice. We find such joy in that and it is an honor. That includes when we suffer and when things are difficult.

Dannah: This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth. I’m Dannah Gresh. We are learning how to endure suffering in hope by looking at the life of Sabina Wurmbrand.

Sabina is one of the women featured in a book Revive Our Hearts just published called (Un)Remarkable: Ten Ordinary Women Who Impacted Their World for Christ.

I’d like to read you some of Sabina’s biography from that little book. 

On more than one occasion during these years, with little or no word of Richard’s whereabouts, Sabina was tempted to give up on him altogether, to divorce him or consider him dead and move on with life, as many other prisoners’ wives had done. Once she even received official notification that he was dead. But God protected Sabina’s heart and her marriage. How grateful she was that she had not given up when, after many long years of silence, she received a postcard in his handwriting that began: “Time and distance quench a small love, but make a great love grow stronger.”

After Richard was released for the second and final time, having endured years of horrific treatment, he joined Sabina and their grown son in their work with the underground church.

In a variety of locations the church met in secret. “We lived dangerously,” Sabina would later write in her autobiography, “And were never bored.” Every detail of their gatherings had to be well thought-out in advance: the place, the hour, the location, the password—everything. Even with those precautions, they were often caught by the secret police or betrayed by informers. Those attending knew it was possible they would never return home. The ministers preached every sermon as if it was their last because it well might have been.

As friends and neighbors were whisked away by the police, Sabina discovered she was harboring bitterness against the informers. It was hard for her to understand why people would turn against their brothers and sisters.

After lying awake one night thinking about it, Sabina’s eyes rested on a portrait of Christ hanging on the cross. She was reminded of some of Christ’s last words before His death: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). She recognized the anger in her heart, and something within her changed. She wrote, “How they thirsted, the betrayers, for forgiveness! Which I would not give them. Which in my bitterness I withheld.” Sabina resolved to show them love and expect nothing in return.

The Wurmbrands escaped Romania in 1965. They came to the United States and began a new season of life. But they didn’t forget their fellow prisoners behind the Iron Curtain and all around the world. They started a ministry called Voice of the Martyrs and they spoke everywhere they could. They lived out what we read in Hebrews 13: “Remember those in prison, as though you were in prison with them, and the mistreated, as though you yourselves were suffering bodily.”

Floyd Brobbel works for Voice of the Martyrs Canada. But he was just a child when Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand first visited his parents’ home. He remembers the activity that surrounded this couple as they worked to launch a new ministry.

Floyd Brobbel: When they would come, they wouldn’t come on their own. The Romanians around the area would come and bombard our house. They were very loud and boisterous and brought all kinds of strange food. My brother and sister and I would be shell-shocked by the different culture bombarding us.

At one point Richard looked over and said, “These kids really aren’t eating anything.” Because we were looking at this food going, “What is this stuff?” 

He said, “Do you guys like pizza?” Our eyes lit up! We hardly had pizza back then, but we certainly knew what it was. 

We said, “We love pizza!” 

So he said, “Don’t worry, I’ll order you a pizza.”

A half hour later, the doorbell rings, and it’s the pizza guy. We are all excited. He opens up the lid, and we are all excited, then our faces drop as we are looking at it. “What is on this pizza?” It has green olives and heart of artichoke and sardines. We were wondering, “What is this? Is this pizza?”

He said, “Kids, what’s the matter? It’s pizza. Why don’t you have some pizza?” 

We're like, “Well, okay.”

Then the doorbell rang again, and it was the pizza guy bringing another pizza. It was a pepperoni pizza with extra cheese. He had set us up on purpose just to see our reaction to the first pizza. That was Richard. He always tried to have fun and get us engaged.

For us as kids, we probably hung out with Sabina more. Whenever Richard spoke, we hung out with her at the book table in the back. She was always wheeling and dealing and putting these book bundles together and trying to sell this special package of three books.

If someone said, “I might be able to buy that, but we already have this one book.”

She would say, “Well, why don’t you give it to a friend?”

They would go home with an extra book they already had. We had a lot of fun with Sabina at the book table. The Wurmbrand were heroes to us. Listening to their stories and meeting them face to face . . . we just looked up to these guys.

Dannah: Ellen Oblander is a friend of the Wurmbrand family. She remembers those early years, too. She’d read Richard Wurmbrand’s book Tortured for Christ, so she went to see him speak at a church. 

Ellen Oblander: We went to the meeting which was in Burbank, California, right next to Glendale. It turned out to be a very rainy night, but the place was packed, fortunately.

I met Sabina in the lobby, and she was everything I expected from having read about her. Somehow, she had that sparkle that came through.

I listened to Richard and was immensely impressed. Sabina invited me to their home right after the meeting for some refreshments. Sabina was always entertaining, always inviting people over. She would share a piece of toast with anybody just to invite them.

Dannah: Ellen Oblander was struck by Sabina’s hospitality when they first met. Ellen became a writer for Voice of the Martyrs. She was always impressed by Sabina’s servant heart.

Ellen: Whenever I went to visit them, poor Sabina was always either packing or unpacking huge suitcases. Here’s this little woman carrying all these heavy loads because Richard had been beaten on his feet, and he had a hard time walking and carrying things. Sabina did a lot of the work. She was a hard worker. 

When he spoke, she would be in the lobby with books, selling books—usually a little packet of books—for nothing, practically. They would give away books. The more he wrote, the more she had to give away. 

She was always cooking and always entertaining people. And she would be carrying these heavy, heavy loads. I often think of Sabina when I’m doing heavy lifting. I’d think, Sabina can do this, so maybe I can do this.

Dannah: So here’s one takeaway from Sabina’s story. She was willing to be a servant and do whatever needed to be done, even when it meant packing and moving boxes or making food. She didn’t say, “I’ve spent time in prison camps. You should be serving me.” What else can we learn from Sabina? Here’s John Grooters.

John: It does impact you to get to know Richard and Sabina and their story. It changes what you think you are capable of. Jesus said, “A new commandment I have given you. I have loved you.” And what does Jesus do? He suffers for you. He sacrifices for you.

When we come across believers who live that out, it’s almost a shock. They seem to be somewhat rare. By meeting Richard and Sabina and this selflessness that they lived by, this ability to look at an enemy—a greater enemy than I have ever faced in my life . . . I’ve never been thrown in prison by Communists or Nazis. I’ve never had my family executed. They faced such specific and awful enemies. They looked them square in the eye. And the testimony of Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand is, they found a way to pray for them. They found a way to hate the system of Communism but really love the people.

Dannah: Here’s Cole Richards.

Cole: If God can empower them to do something like that: to reach out in love to the very people who invaded them. The same God, the Holy Spirit, dwells inside us, and we can do likewise. We can learn to live a victorious faith in Christ and walk that out in practical ways despite any opposition. 

Dannah: Ellen Oblander remembers Sabina putting joy on display until her final days. She died on August 20, 2000.

Ellen: She had cancer of the stomach, and it’s very painful. She always had a smile on her face, sometimes a pained smile. You could see in her eyes that she was in pain, but she’d never let you know. She really represented Jesus. Make Jesus first in your life and love Him with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. 

Nancy: We’ve just heard a number of reasons why I think Christian biographies can do so much to encourage and strengthen our faith. The next time something doesn’t go our way—and it can be something seemingly insignificant—we can remember Sabina Wurmbrand’s time in a prison camp and how she got closer to Jesus through that suffering.

Sabina’s life also shows us how God can take our most painful experiences and use us to be a means of comfort in the lives of others who are hurting. 

Biographies can help us see how God worked through regular people to glorify Himself, to put the spotlight on Christ. That’s what you’ll discover in a short book Revive Our Hearts just released called (Un)remarkable: Ten Ordinary Women Who Impacted Their World for Christ.

Dannah: You can only get this new book through Revive Our Hearts. It’s our gift to you when you get involved in this ministry with a donation of any size.

I think back to what we heard about Sabina. She was passionate about the ministry God called her to. She packed up books and carried them from church to church because she knew they would change people’s lives.

Well, this is our version of the book table. I think you’ll love this new book which we’ve titled, (Un)remarkable.

Nancy: You know, Dannah, that title could be used to describe how I feel about myself and how our team members feel about ourselves. We don’t think of ourselves as remarkable women of God. We think of ourselves as women who desperately need God.

But what we are excited about is how God is willing to use us, and how He is using the different outreaches of Revive Our Hearts to reach the hearts of women around the world.

In fact, as we are recording this right now, there is a group of new Revive Our Hearts Ambassadors that are being trained at our ministry center. I had the joy of meeting those new Ambassadors a couple of nights ago and was so encouraged by their stories of how God has used this ministry to touch their lives, and now how the Lord is using them to touch other women’s lives. The reason we are investing in them is so they can encourage women’s leaders all across the country. 

And as we speak, also, two members of a women’s prison ministry are visiting our ministry center. They are recording in another studio how God has used Revive Our Hearts to bring about transformation in their lives and to encourage them in the ministry God has called them to.

And here’s another thing God is doing in recent days. The Revive Our Hearts team has adopted and is helping to support financially eleven women who are Christian broadcasters and biblical counselors in Ukraine. These women’s lives have been turned upside down. Most of them have been displaced from their homes. They have lost most everything. Many of them are separated from family members. But they are continuing to proclaim the gospel and to serve the Lord where they are. And we’re helping to meet their needs.

All of these kinds of ministries I just mentioned and more are what you are helping to make possible when you support Revive Our Hearts. This month we’re asking the Lord to provide at least $775,000 in donations to keep our current ministries going and move forward into new opportunities that are opening up around the world. In fact, one of those new opportunities I was talking about . . . I was in a small group the other day and they said, “Oh, you can’t talk about that yet. It’s not public.” It’s in a country where it is very difficult to proclaim the gospel. They said, “Just keep this under wraps until we know that you can talk about it publicly.” But this is going on behind the scenes in countries around the world.

So, would you ask the Lord how He would like you to get involved in helping to support this ministry so we can continue this breadth of outreaches into the lives of women around the world?

Dannah: We thank you in advance, and we’d love to say “thank you.” Right now, our way of saying that when you make a gift of any size, we’ll send you the new book (Un)remarkable. It’s the story of ten women who impacted their world for Jesus Christ.

You can make your donation online at ReviveOurHearts.com, or call us at 800-569-5959.

Nancy: And Dannah, on Monday, we’ll be back for one of my favorite passages in the Scripture, Isaiah chapter 40. You may want to read that chapter over the weekend. We're in a time of great distress, the prophet was sent to comfort God’s people with this Word: “Behold your God!” It’s a distressing time, and that’s the message of comfort we’ll talk about next week. Be sure to be back with us again on Monday for Revive Our Hearts.

Dannah: The clips you heard today were made possible thanks to the ministry Voice of the Martyrs Radio. You can learn more at VOMRadio.net. 

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is calling you to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.