Sentenced to Joy

How timely it is that Pastor Szilágyi's memoir of his forced labour in Communist-run Romania now appears in English! The waning of the charmed life of the church in the West makes Sentenced to Joy not only a gripping, honest, humble, and moving historical account, but a Christ-centered, spiritually-insightful, and joy-filled education in how to suffer for the gospel. The memoir deserves a wide, attentive, and enduring readership. (Tim J. R. Trumper, President, From His Fullness Ministries) Rev. Szilágyi lived and survived under strictly atheistic dictatorship because of a peculiar vision of a kinship-family "relationship network" focused on and rooted in God. His fears of those persecuting him were conquered, not by strength or rebellion, but by his vivid understanding of what it meant to be a child of God. He viewed his captors as the servants of his heavenly Father: what child is afraid of his father&s servants? The way he and his fellow believing prisoners comprehended their place within the Body of Christ created a strong fellowship cohesion, something which is needed more than ever by the Church today. (Levente Horváth, President, Reformed Rescue Mission)