I must respond that it's not so! I've been to one of the darkest places on earth, and I've seen the glory! At the Communist Youth World Festival, I saw the glory of God. And I've seen it again even more recently.

One of the most difficult places on the earth for a Christian to live today (book publishing date 1987) is the nation of Romania. Christians are continually harassed there. Many lose educational and job opportunities because of their faith, and some are imprisoned. But I have seen the glory of God in Romania. I've seen the glory of God in parts of the Soviet Union and Poland as well.

My faith has been renewed, and I believe that God wants to send a great awakening in the midst of the darkness of the Western world. Spiritual awakening is simply a fresh view of Jesus. When we see Him, there's only one thing we can do. We fall at His feet in sweet surrender to love and worship Him. It is that love that spurs us to become the salt and light of the world.

There's a question that plagues me, however. With all our freedom and heritage in the West, why don't we have revival? Everywhere I go I ask that question. The best answer came to me in Romania.

There was a pastor in Bothell, Washington, Dr. Sam Friend, with whom I had become very close. I had preached in his church several times. Dr. Friend visited Romania and met Josif Ton. Josif asked Pastor Friend to send a music group and a young pastor to preach evangelistic meetings throughout Romania. At the time, I was pastor of Hahn Baptist Church in Hahn, Germany.

I had heard of the revival in Romania, but it was through other believers in Eastern Europe that I learned how desperate the situation really was. They told me of long lines for food and gas and of power shortages in the winter. But mostly they spoke of the severe oppression of the believers by the Romanian government. Soon after accepting Josif's invitation to preach, I experienced firsthand the severity of Romanian life.

In June 1980, I boarded a Volkswagen van with five musicians and all their sound equipment and luggage and left Hahn Baptist Church for Romania. At the Romanian border, we encountered our first difficulty. We were detained seven hours. At one point, the border guards and customs people told me we couldn't enter the country because we had so much sound equipment. We negotiated with them and left a $2,000 deposit. That was to insure that we wouldn't sell the equipment on the black market. They searched everything in the van, finding that each of us had a personal Bible. As those were confiscated, one of the girls in the music group began to cry. "Sammy, you can't let them take my Bible."

I was puzzled. "They have machine guns. I don't think we have any choice." But that didn't seem to comfort her. So I said, "Let's pray about it." Immediately before allowing us to cross into Romania, they gave us back our Bibles.

After spending a few days in Romania, I thought that George Orwell had visited that country before writing 1984. One pastor told us in a restaurant to be careful with our conversation. He said that secret police were nearby. I asked him how he knew they were secret police.

I was amazed at his response. "I've been interrogated by those men every week for six months."

Many times at the conclusion of the worship services, crowds would gather around me to ask questions and learn more about Jesus. Occasionally, the crowds would instantly disperse as someone would whisper, "Secret police." Persecution is much greater in Romania than in other Eastern-bloc nations.

Yet, in the midst of the hardship stands one of the most precious groups I've ever met. The church is alive and growing. In every city where I ministered, there was never room in the church for all the people. Every seat, every inch of standing room was taken. Crowds gathered around the windows. The doors were opened, and the masses listened from outside, many times by loud speakers.

The music group would sing for an hour, and I would preach for an hour. Then we were mobbed by people wanting to hear more.

Everywhere I went, I kept hearing about Josif Ton. He was being mightily used of God to spread the revival, especially among university students. We concluded our two weeks of preaching in his large church in Oradea. I was awed by his spirituality and scholarly approach to the Scriptures. Hundreds of key intellectuals would come in to hear him lecture every week. It was no surprise the government forced Josif to leave Romania just a few months after we returned to Germany.

Josif continues to minister to Romania today through broadcasts and literature as president of the Romanian Missionary Society in the United States.

He says that "Eastern Europe is a post-Marxist society, while Western Europe and the United States are perhaps pre-Marxist.

"The Communists promised a utopia to Eastern Europe forty years ago. But the people are under even worse conditions now. Communism has been a failure. The new man has not emerged as promised by Marx. The people of Romania have learned what not to believe in. Now they need to know what to believe in. They are hungry for the truth."

I was reminded of the words of Jesus, 'Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled" (Matthew 5:6).

"But, Sammy, " he continued, "the Western world is flirting with the underlying philosophy of Communism: secular humanism. Many nations of the western world are like the prodigal son. Their hearts have turned away from the loving Father. They are experimenting with communist philosophy. They have not realized yet what the people of Eastern Europe have learned. No government or human philosophy can create the 'new man.'"