A miracle in Siberia

Sep 30, 2021 | VoM

God had made signs and miracles so that Christians and communists would learn that He knows and loves those who are His, even in a communist prison. When the Soviet army entered a certain province in communist Romania, they deported all the Christians living there to Siberia.

Hungry, beaten and mocked by the communists, the Christians were sentenced to forced labour, compelled to cut a specific number of trees every day. If they did not meet their quota, they did not receive their soup that evening.

Among the Christian women in the work camp was a sister named Lidia, who worked very hard to cut the required number of trees. One evening, some thieves and robbers who were imprisoned with her stole the work Lidia had completed that day. So when Lidia returned to her prison cell, she received no soup.

Hungry and knowing that she would not sleep, Lidia left her cell and walked out into the prison yard. As she was walking, praying and weeping, she heard a man’s voice calling after her, “Hey, hey, do you have a mother?” As if awaking from a dream, she looked behind her and saw a Soviet officer with a revolver in his hand. “Hey, do you have a mother who prays for you?” he asked.

“Oh, yes, I have a mother who surely prays for me,” she replied. “Why do you ask me?”

“For half an hour, I have been running after you with this revolver to shoot you because you are where you are not allowed to be,” he told her.

“But now I cannot move my arm. It is surely your mother who prays for you. Now run back immediately, because if someone sees us here he will shoot us both. “

Lidia, now weeping tears of thankfulness, ran back to her prison cell and slept as if she had eaten the best of dinners. Early the next morning, the guard who had spoken to her the previous night showed her his arm, which he was now able to move.

Among the thousands of prisoners often forgotten and written off, God took care of His child, Lidia, showing even to the communist guard that the mother who prays can work for her child even when the child is in a communist prison.

SABINA WURMBRAND

Sabina Wurmbrand (1913–2000) and her husband, Richard, founded Voice of the Martyrs. Sabina was imprisoned for three years in communist Romania, forced to work as a slave labourer on the Danube Canal.

Read the full account of Sabina Wurmbrand’s imprisonment in her book The Pastor’s Wife .

Receive the e-book as a complimentary gift when you purchase a ticket for the upcoming film, Sabina: Tortured for Christ – the Nazi years .