Twenty years ago today, while many of us were tucked safely in our homes watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer on TV, freedom came to Romania. Romania followed Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria, as Communism tumbled like dominoes in Eastern Europe. This revolution, however, was different. It wasn’t a peaceable exchange of power; it involved bloodshed and the loss of hundreds of innocent young lives. It wasn’t just about politics; the rallying cry from the beginning had been “God exists!” The most oppressed of the group of satellite countries, it was truly supernatural that Romanians were able to gather the courage to stand up and fight against their dictator.

As I watched the news, God planted a seed in my heart, a love for the Romanian people, which began to grow. It grew enough to sustain me, months later, when I found out that my yearlong assignment would be to Romania, a place I thought would prove too difficult for someone like me, someone who preferred spa weekends to camping.

Several supernatural things occurred during the week of the Romanian Revolution. The weather was unseasonably warm, enabling thousands of people to camp out overnight in the city square outside Bucharest’s Parliament building. Suddenly, without warning, the army tanks which had been gunning down unarmed innocent civilians, dramatically turned, of one accord, and began to shoot at the Secret Police. God brought victory to the Romanian people that day, 20 years ago. He rescued people who had been in bondage for 45 years.

2,000 years ago, He brought freedom from bondage to all of us who will call upon the name of His Son. "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests." (Luke 2:14)