Daily News-Record May 27, 2014
HARRISONBURG - If "the miracle in Romania" wasn't the highlight of Steve Wingfield's 40-year ministerial career - one filled with more than a few memorable moments - it comes close.
The Rev. Ed Scearce told those gathered at a dinner Sunday night honoring Wingfield's 40 years in ministry about how he and Wingfield witnessed the aftermath of the fall of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in December 1989. The two men, who Scearce joked were "two country bumpkins from Virginia," arrived in Bucharest on Dec. 28 of that year, three days after Ceausescu's execution.
The dictator's regime had killed hundreds of Romanian Christians in Timisoara, Scearce said. The bloodbath had sparked a nationwide march that resulted in some Romanian Army soldiers refusing to fire on Romanian citizens, Scearce said, and ultimately brought the end of Ceausescu, one of several Eastern European communist leaders to fall that year.
Scearce and Wingfield ministered in Romania for three weeks following Ceausescu's execution.
"The Book of Acts [of the Apostles] was wide open," Scearce said as he described those harrowing days. The men heard residual mortar fire during a National Day of Mourning event on Jan. 12, 1990, he said.
Prior to Wingfield's sermon, the crowd shouted, "Liberty, liberty; Ceausescu down, Ceausescu down," Scearce said.
"There were 10 to 15 minutes when we didn't know what was going to happen," Wingfield said Monday.
"God gave us the privilege of seeing something phenomenal," Scearce said. "Then the storm came!"
A storm that was headed toward them from nearby mountains returned to the mountains. That happened three times, enough time for Wingfield to invite thousands of Romanians to commit their lives to Jesus Christ.
"They say I'm an American with a Romanian heart," Wingfield said in an interview on Monday.
Wingfield lobbied for aid for the fledgling Romanian democracy when he returned to the U.S., Scearce said. By his own admission, Wingfield has made at least 28 trips to the southeastern European nation.
1974 A Good Year
Sunday's dinner at Harrisonburg's First Church of the Nazarene and hosted by the Steve Wingfield Evangelistic Association, honored Wingfield, 66, and his wife, Barbara, 62. The event, which drew close to 200 well-wishers, also served as a celebration of the Mount Crawford couple's 40-year wedding anniversary. They were married June 8, 1974, at Conestoga Mennonite Church in Morgantown, Pa. The couple's six grandchildren feted "Pops and Grandma" in recorded videos.
Wingfield grew up in the Lynchburg area and was the son of a United Methodist pastor, he said.
After getting married, Wingfield pastored a Wesleyan church in Roanoke for eight years before attending Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Chicago for two years before returning to the Harrisonburg area in 1985, when he began his long career as an evangelist.
A Little Humor
The Wingfields' son, David, 34, shared a somewhat humorous memory of his parents from one winter day.
"They're both cheap," he said. "They wouldn't pay for the chimney to be cleaned," which led to occasional chimney fires. "Dad would take a bucket up on the roof and dump water down the chimney" to extinguish the fire, David said. One time, however, his father slipped on the icy roof and grabbed the gutter. His feet hit the ladder, knocking it over and into wife Barbara. She fell into the snow just as the water came raining down on her - as Steve landed safely on top of the doghouse.
When Steve asked Barbara if she was OK, she replied, "I'm not dead... ," David remembered. "Things were sometimes kind of crazy, but things always worked out," he said.
`Freedom ... To Preach The Gospel'
Romanian ex-patriate Petru Lulusa saluted Wingfield on Sunday, adding that he, "thank[s] God for the freedom Romania has to preach the gospel."
Lulusa, who escaped the former Communist nation in 1969, said nine members of his family came to know Jesus Christ in one of Wingfield's Romanian crusades.
Through four crusades Wingfield gave in 1990, some 11,000 Romanians came to know their Messiah, said Lulusa, who escaped his native country by riding more than nine hours beneath a train.
Lulusa was located beneath the train's toilet, which left him covered in excrement, Wingfield said Monday. That was his salvation because the smell helped him avoid detection by dogs, Wingfield said. Lulusa, who made it through Yugoslavia and on to Italy, where he stayed in a refugee camp for eight months, eventually made it to the U.S.
Lulusa prayed that if God would get him to the U.S., he would serve Him. He went on to become an opera singer and sings with the Steve Wingfield Evangelistic Association across the world.
NASCAR Next
In 2012, Wingfield began fulfilling what Scearce called "a lifelong dream" of evangelizing at NASCAR races through Victory Weekend events. This year has seen Wingfield at Daytona Speed Week in February and Bristol Motor Speedway in March, where he shared his faith in Jesus Christ at a somewhat unlikely venue. NASCAR crowds are known for their raucous behavior, but Wingfield has seen hundreds make the decision to follow Christ.
And the wheels keep on turnin' for Wingfield.
He plans to go to Dover, Del., this weekend, followed by Michigan in June and August, Dover again in September and Charlotte in October.
The Rev. Ed Scearce told those gathered at a dinner Sunday night honoring Wingfield's 40 years in ministry about how he and Wingfield witnessed the aftermath of the fall of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in December 1989. The two men, who Scearce joked were "two country bumpkins from Virginia," arrived in Bucharest on Dec. 28 of that year, three days after Ceausescu's execution.
The dictator's regime had killed hundreds of Romanian Christians in Timisoara, Scearce said. The bloodbath had sparked a nationwide march that resulted in some Romanian Army soldiers refusing to fire on Romanian citizens, Scearce said, and ultimately brought the end of Ceausescu, one of several Eastern European communist leaders to fall that year.
Scearce and Wingfield ministered in Romania for three weeks following Ceausescu's execution.
"The Book of Acts [of the Apostles] was wide open," Scearce said as he described those harrowing days. The men heard residual mortar fire during a National Day of Mourning event on Jan. 12, 1990, he said.
Prior to Wingfield's sermon, the crowd shouted, "Liberty, liberty; Ceausescu down, Ceausescu down," Scearce said.
"There were 10 to 15 minutes when we didn't know what was going to happen," Wingfield said Monday.
"God gave us the privilege of seeing something phenomenal," Scearce said. "Then the storm came!"
A storm that was headed toward them from nearby mountains returned to the mountains. That happened three times, enough time for Wingfield to invite thousands of Romanians to commit their lives to Jesus Christ.
"They say I'm an American with a Romanian heart," Wingfield said in an interview on Monday.
Wingfield lobbied for aid for the fledgling Romanian democracy when he returned to the U.S., Scearce said. By his own admission, Wingfield has made at least 28 trips to the southeastern European nation.
1974 A Good Year
Sunday's dinner at Harrisonburg's First Church of the Nazarene and hosted by the Steve Wingfield Evangelistic Association, honored Wingfield, 66, and his wife, Barbara, 62. The event, which drew close to 200 well-wishers, also served as a celebration of the Mount Crawford couple's 40-year wedding anniversary. They were married June 8, 1974, at Conestoga Mennonite Church in Morgantown, Pa. The couple's six grandchildren feted "Pops and Grandma" in recorded videos.
Wingfield grew up in the Lynchburg area and was the son of a United Methodist pastor, he said.
After getting married, Wingfield pastored a Wesleyan church in Roanoke for eight years before attending Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Chicago for two years before returning to the Harrisonburg area in 1985, when he began his long career as an evangelist.
A Little Humor
The Wingfields' son, David, 34, shared a somewhat humorous memory of his parents from one winter day.
"They're both cheap," he said. "They wouldn't pay for the chimney to be cleaned," which led to occasional chimney fires. "Dad would take a bucket up on the roof and dump water down the chimney" to extinguish the fire, David said. One time, however, his father slipped on the icy roof and grabbed the gutter. His feet hit the ladder, knocking it over and into wife Barbara. She fell into the snow just as the water came raining down on her - as Steve landed safely on top of the doghouse.
When Steve asked Barbara if she was OK, she replied, "I'm not dead... ," David remembered. "Things were sometimes kind of crazy, but things always worked out," he said.
`Freedom ... To Preach The Gospel'
Romanian ex-patriate Petru Lulusa saluted Wingfield on Sunday, adding that he, "thank[s] God for the freedom Romania has to preach the gospel."
Lulusa, who escaped the former Communist nation in 1969, said nine members of his family came to know Jesus Christ in one of Wingfield's Romanian crusades.
Through four crusades Wingfield gave in 1990, some 11,000 Romanians came to know their Messiah, said Lulusa, who escaped his native country by riding more than nine hours beneath a train.
Lulusa was located beneath the train's toilet, which left him covered in excrement, Wingfield said Monday. That was his salvation because the smell helped him avoid detection by dogs, Wingfield said. Lulusa, who made it through Yugoslavia and on to Italy, where he stayed in a refugee camp for eight months, eventually made it to the U.S.
Lulusa prayed that if God would get him to the U.S., he would serve Him. He went on to become an opera singer and sings with the Steve Wingfield Evangelistic Association across the world.
NASCAR Next
In 2012, Wingfield began fulfilling what Scearce called "a lifelong dream" of evangelizing at NASCAR races through Victory Weekend events. This year has seen Wingfield at Daytona Speed Week in February and Bristol Motor Speedway in March, where he shared his faith in Jesus Christ at a somewhat unlikely venue. NASCAR crowds are known for their raucous behavior, but Wingfield has seen hundreds make the decision to follow Christ.
And the wheels keep on turnin' for Wingfield.
He plans to go to Dover, Del., this weekend, followed by Michigan in June and August, Dover again in September and Charlotte in October.
No comments:
Post a Comment