CEE Story From The Mission Field
READY TO RUMBLE
November 6, 2007
“The Valley” is a very difficult place to live. It is poverty-stricken and full of people who must find “alternate” ways to earn a living, including crime, violence and immorality. It is also one of Troy Geddes’ favorite places in Galati, Romania to prayerwalk.
A volunteer team from southeast Missouri accompanied Troy recently in a morning of prayer, and found itself in the middle of some trouble—30 men ready for a gang fight.
These men were not strangers to Troy. He knew most of them from working in “the valley” for the past couple of years, and had even been in many of their homes. The group’s leader is a man named Danuti.
“We call Danuti the King of Thieves because he has connections to the worst of the worst here in the city,” Troy said. “We’ve been trying to reach him with the Gospel for two years.”
This day, Danuti was in a bad mood and warned Troy to go home before he got hurt, but Troy would not listen.
“I told Danuti that we were not leaving—we had been prayerwalking in “the valley” every morning and we weren’t going to stop,” Troy said. “I went on to tell him that if he wanted us to leave, they would have to ‘take us all out.’”
Troy and his team proceeded to gather in the middle of the gang, turn their backs on the members, join hands and pray—with their eyes on the Lord and not on the danger around them. One guy had a big stick, and Troy went and took it from him. As the Lord would have it, just the night before Troy had witnessed to this man and his entire family. Though the group moved closer and looked threatening, nothing happened. Troy decided to pose a question to the men.
“I held a big Bible in one hand and the stick in the other,” Troy said. “I asked them which was more powerful—Jesus or the stick. I told them they needed to follow Jesus. When I left, I put the Bible on a corner post so that all could clearly see it while they prepared to ‘rumble.’”
Troy and the volunteers went to a nearby ministry center that he established as a home base for evangelism and Bible study in the area. There they continued to pray for the impending violence out on the street.
“We asked the Lord to do something to prevent the fight and to change the direction of these men’s lives,” he said.
After about 10 minutes, Troy went back to the street corner and found only eight men left. Danuti was there, reading the Bible, with his son looking over his shoulder. Other men had tears in their eyes when Troy approached and shook their hands. God was at work.
The next morning, Troy and his group went back to prayerwalk again. This time the atmosphere was calm. One of the gang members ran up to the group when he saw them.
“I am so glad you guys prayed for us yesterday—we were ready to get into a big fight and many of us would have been hurt,” he said. “I want a Bible—I want my life to change!”
Danuti is also moving closer to the Truth. He called Troy and asked him for prayer.
“This is truly a God thing,” Troy said.
To find out more about Troy's ministry in Romania and how you can be a part, click here.