"Purpose of Appearance: To give his testimony. Elijah was a persecuted Romanian Christian who was supernaturally led to freedom...Around May 1974, Elijah received a prophecy that on October 9, 1974, he would depart and leave his family and Romania behind. Elijah knew that it was impossible to escape without the Lord's help because of the heavy security around the boarder. Around 6-8PM on October 9th, Elijah saw a...--Excerpt from the 700 Club Television Broadcast Fact Sheet, September 12, 1984, Anaheim, California

The Authorized Account of How Three Men Followed a Supernatural Light to Freedom

By R. D. Ginther

Foreign tourists snap pictures of quaint villages and priceless monastery art, returning afterwards to resorts built by the Romanian government, each equipped with a bowling alley, a rock band, and a strip of sandy beach that is off-limits to the Romanian people...

Bucharest the capital, full of fine, old buildings built before World War I but empty of cars, and everywhere somber-faced people waiting for hours in lines to buy what little food there is in a hungry land that once was Europe's breadbasket...

Vast collective farms, once the great hope of socialist agriculture, turning to weeds and thistles as the tractors rust in the fields, the farm managers unable to secure parts to fix them...

Aged factories and industries, long out-of-date, spewing forth black, deadly toxins over the towns and farmlands and into the rivers, spreading ugliness, death, and sickness in a land renowned for great, natural beauty...

Impoverished, hard-working Romanian youth turn to sympathetic visitors from the affluent Western countries and cross their wrists!

One of thousands of families seeking to escape, a twelve year old girl loses her parents to gunfire from guards at the border, and alone she drags her five year old brother away...

Elijah, a brave, Christian man, is arrested by the KGB secret police, and beaten and interrogated for hours, then days. His crime? Transporting Bibles to Romania's northern, Soviet Army-occupied province of Moldavia. One day, he hopes and prays with his wife, they will escape and find a way to freedom with their children...one day!

This is the true story of how Elijah, who with two men God sent along to be his companions and to serve as a living testimony that the event had happened, gained his freedom, and also how ultimately his family was miraculously enabled to join him in the West; thus, God provided a way for Elijah, his two friends, and his wife and family where there was seemingly no way at all...

They part my garments among them,

and cast lots upon my vesture.

But be not far from me, O Lord:

O my strength, haste to help me.

Deliver my soul from the sword;

my darling from the power of the dog.

Save me from the lion's mouth:

--Psalm 22: 18-22

A fire goeth before him,

and burneth up his enemies

round about.--Psalm 97:3 (KJV)

But if we walk in the light,

as he is in the light,

we have fellowship with one another,

cleanseth us from all sin.

--I John 1:7 (KJV)

This book is dedicated to my mother, Pearl A. Ginther, because without her faith and example in my life it would never have seen the light.

The writer thanks the anonymous creator of the cover page, and asks his forebearance, due to the writer's alteration of the cover page to include three men standing in the column of light which would graphically represent the brave trio of Elijah and his two companions.

This second edition of the Internet is dedicated to Senator Henry M. Jackson, U.S. congressman from the author's own home state, Washington, who served America's two best interests in the nation's capital for many years, by his vigilant support of our defense and of human rights through his continual compassionate aid to oppressed people. A printed copy of the second edition was sent to Helen Jackson, head of the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, and she kindly responded with thanks and good wishes for the success of the edition.

MY NAME IS ELIJAH. I WAS BORN OF A GERMAN-DESCENT FATHER AND A JEWISH MOTHER IN MY BELOVED HOMELAND OF ROMANIA. I AM, BY GOD'S GRACE, A U.S. CITIZEN NOW, BUT HOW CAN I FORGET ROMANIA? MY HEART WOULD SURELY STOP IF EVER THAT HAPPENED! I WEEP FOR MY COUNTRY EVEN NOW--FOR THE DESPAIR THAT STILL RULES IN SO MANY HEARTS LONG OPPRESSED BY COMMUNISM AND DECADES OF DICTATORSHIP. BUT LET ME TELL YOU OF THIS LAND OF GREAT BEAUTY AND GREAT TRAGEDY, WHERE GOD BESTOWED RICH FAVOR TO US IN OUR TERRIBLE DISTRESSES, AND IN MY OWN LIFE SHOWED THAT HE WHO ONCE PARTED THE RED SEA FOR THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL FLEEING MIGHTY PHARAOH WAS STILL LIVING, AND STILL ALMIGHTY, ALL THE TIME CARING AND LOOKING OUT FOR MY BELOVED WIFE AND CHILDREN, AND ME...

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