View
A Shorter Way to Fall
Brendon Sylvester on a Romanian Cautionary Tale for Fallible Pastors
In the 1980s, at the height of Nicolae Ceaușescu's communist dictatorship, the underground church in Romania operated clandestine youth camps deep in the Carpathian Mountains. Missionaries, pastors, church members, and youth sought solace in the wilderness, to pray and worship outside the government--sanctioned church—away from Ceaușescu's crushing grip on religious practice. My father attended these camps as an American missionary. There, one summer, he met a young man named Petr Cseboli and formed a fast friendship. Cseboli was one of only seven students enrolled in the tiny Hungarian Reformed Seminary, which was only allowed to exist so Romania could present a facade of religious freedom to the West.
My father spoke no Romanian; Cseboli spoke no English. But over the four years they worked together, their love—for the camp's young people, for Christ, and for each other—bonded them in spiritual kinship. My father describes how the two of them once clasped hands in prayerful friendship as they hiked up the mountain to worship God.
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more on ministry from the online archives
32.1—January/February 2019
Sex, Women's Ordination & the Rejection of Hierarchy & Equality by James A. Altena
more from the online archives
33.1—January/February 2020
on a Saint's Charism That Cures Toxic Perfectionism by Colleen Carroll Campbell
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
