Moving mountains - Bill & Jean Grunbaum's ministry to Eastern Europe

Back in 1917 the mountain of Communism thrust itself into human history with the revolution in Russia.

During subsequent decades it engulfed one country after another in its Red embrace.

In a speech during the 1940s, Winston Churchill stated: 'An Iron Curtain has fallen across the ancient states and capitals of Eastern Europe'.

During the final years and months of its atheistic domination, few observers suspected the enormous political divisions or the bankrupt economies within the system. Mikhail Gorbachov had earlier encouraged the twin policies of glasnost and perestroika (information and openness) in the Soviet Union. Then it began to happen.

Another way home

Thousands of people from the smaller 'satellite' countries of the Eastern Bloc had been able for a few years to take summer holidays along the coast of South Yugoslavia.

In 1989, hundreds of holidaymakers refused to return to their own countries and crowded into Western embassies in Hungary, Yugoslavia and wherever possible. The crowds grew, and so did the tension, until Austria opened its frontiers and Hungary decided to let the people go! They spilled into that neutral land and flowed freely through Western Europe. Within a few weeks Central Europe was in turmoil!

Another world

40 years earlier Bill Grunbaum (from London) and Jean his wife (from Birmingham) had set off from Victoria Station on the Continental Express to Europe to begin their missionary careers a few days before Christmas 1950. In the corridor of the packed train where they stood a well-dressed young lady turned to her equally elegantly clad companion and said: 'Isn't it a pity, mother, that nobody of interest is travelling to Europe these days'! Human and divine opinions still differ today.

Bill and Jean had met three years earlier sharing in an SU Children's Mission on Wimbledon Common. Jean was training as a nurse, and Bill was a student at Bible College in London.

Now Bill takes up the story. The mission was conducted under the name of CSSM. Within three years we married, and though young and naive we were zealous to share the gospel throughout Europe with anyone who would listen.

A sorry mess

Mainland Europe in 1950 lay battered and bruised from the devastation of World War II. Hardly a family had not suffered grievous losses of loved ones and possessions, or dignity or home estates. It was a time of great austerity, loneliness (and sometimes opposition from the authorities, religious groups and others), but during that period we learned a language, a culture and a continent - and laid foundations and friendships which last until today.

Scores of refugee camps populated Austria during that decade and remained until an international effort was made in the early 1960s to deal with the situation. In many such camps we gathered children for games, summer camps and regular Bible teaching, also holding house groups for adults and distributing humanitarian aid. The response was slow, suspicion was rife (security services were hyperactive), food was in short supply, and so was money as thousands wrestled with their own task of keeping family, body and soul together on a bomb-battered continent. This was another huge climb for survival, and some never made it.

A few founding groups of active Christians were started firstly in eastern Austria, then later in western Austria, where today there are mature fellowships, producing Good News Clubs and running numerous Bible camps. Eternity will reveal the fruit. They were tough times - stretching, trusting and proving God.

I will build my church

After eight years in Austria, we later penetrated the Iron Curtain, travelling in a pre-war styled seven-seater Ford van. The further we travelled the more evangelical local churches we discovered in one country after another, with thousands of dedicated believers of every name and background, meeting mostly in old warehouses and garages, cellars and attics, as well as some well-preserved church buildings, mostly packed to the doors. They gathered often in secrecy and fear, as in Romania, Russia and Bulgaria; but some were officially permitted to congregate, under strict regulations (and to give Western authorities the impression of freedom of religion! - which few believed).

They were hungry for the Word, and meetings ran for hours, sometimes all evening, or all day or all night - and the preacher was expected to continue preaching - until he couldn't! During many years hundreds were converted and baptised. In one local church where we ministered many times, 118 were converted and baptised in three months at one period. Recently dozens more were baptised in Poland, Slovakia, Romania and the Czech Republic, not to mention Russia and further south. The fire glows on!

'Would you like to buy Bibles?'

Most countries of Eastern Europe were starved of Bibles, good evangelical books, children's teaching materials, libraries and so on for over 40 years, as well as summer Bible camps, Christian conferences and music concerts, even regular Y.P. and children's meetings. Imagine our amazement when an American worker based in Vienna offered to sell us 8,000 Bibles in Slovak. In 1967 Dubcek (a Slovak) became president of Czechoslovakia and introduced 'Socialism with a human face' with little success. However, he permitted 30,000 Bibles in Slovak to be printed in 1968, some of which we helped to distribute, but apparently many were stored away.

It was some of these that were offered to us and we speedily grasped the opportunity. The Bibles had been stacked in piles for two years in an ancient outhouse of an elderly Christian in Bratislava, but within days various leaders had collected supplies for their fellowships. Praise God. At that time Bibles in Russia cost over £100 on the black market!

'It's a foolish idea'

The speaker was an elderly Christian man well versed in the Eastern European situation, having been a member of an Occupation Commission at one time. Clearly there was a risk involved in the plan, but 'God-directed' risks are a characteristic of warriors in the Bible.

Our idea was simple. Across Eastern Europe there were hundreds of Christian young people starved of Bible teaching, forbidden to travel abroad or attend Christian conferences. It seemed good to us to bring them to Britain for a long holiday of up to six weeks, spending three weeks in fellowship at a suitable conference centre, with Bible studies, excursions, and the remaining weeks with British Christian families in their homes around the country.

Almost impossible

In 1965 it was virtually impossible to get anyone out of most Eastern Bloc countries legally. So the plan was drenched in continuous intercession. Only the Lord could open this door. Months of preparation went into the organisation that first year, and into all the 25 years that followed - selecting suitable young people, sending appropriate invitations and rail tickets, dealing with immigration authorities in several countries, finding suitable conference centres in southern England, and contacting scores of Christian families who would give the vital hospitality later - these were some of the tasks to be resolved.

But they came! Students, nurses, craftsmen, engineers, doctors, lecturers, etc., totalling over 500 through the years - and most of them still running well with their Lord and Master. Hundreds of fine Christian friends all over Britain shared, supported, encouraged and sacrificed willingly to help these delightful disciples from the Communist world. To God be the glory.

We came to know and love these young folk like our own children. They were different and some of their stories would fill pages.

The queues stretched endlessly, prices rocketed, most shops were empty and tension in the country mounted daily. The solidarnosc movement was developing in the shipyards of North Poland and elsewhere. General Jaruselski took over as president and introduced strict regulations. Daily things got steadily worse. Martial law was then introduced.

After five journeys to the country during 1981, we returned to Britain burdened to help some of the people in their desperate need. During all the previous 20 years of serving in Eastern Europe we had never attempted to take in bulk supplies.

My wife Jean and I, with a few others at first, prayed much and a plan to take in 1,000 kilos of food in a van began to grow. We contacted wholesale food suppliers who were prepared to give us an account, assessing that a ton of food would cost about £1,000, including delivery costs to Poland. Then a friend rang offering the use of a single-decker coach for the trip - and it could carry about eight tons! An estimated £10,000 would be necessary for everything, and we certainly did not have such funds, but we accepted the challenge while adjusting plans accordingly.

A week later the same friend rang offering the use of a 20-ton juggernaut and the use of a professional Christian driver, free of charge. We gasped, quickly sought advice from above, and accepted the new challenge - but this one requiring about £30,000!

One trip only

Well, that is what we thought. In-creased orders of food were made (we only ever took new supplies in our humanitarian activities, except for carefully-selected used clothing). Early in October we left on the three-week visit. The truck on board a North Sea ferry ran into a Force 9 gale and was damaged. The enemy was attacking. Five tons of tinned food had shifted in the trailer. For two days, assisted by German dockers in Cuxhaven without any pay, another trailer was repacked with all the supplies. Even our own food and hospitality dockside were given free, and this time we made the rest of the journey without problems, including replacement of just ten tins of food damaged in the storm.

Triumphant we returned to Britain, but could not rest. God supplied meantime the needed finance to settle all bills, and with more coming in we set out again three months later in a bitter January, when the supplies were most needed, this time with the 20-ton truck and another with three tons. There was great rejoicing by the Christians in Poland - hundreds of families were helped.

Three months later we set off again, this time with four truckloads totalling some 30 tons of varied supplies, including much new footwear, blankets, medical supplies, etc. So this work continued for the next five years, wonderfully supplied and protected by the Lord. Al-together a mountain of over 200 tons of humanitarian aid was taken to Poland during that period.

Two years after the Polish campaign finished, Communism collapsed and Eastern Europe opened to humanitarian help in a fuller way. We began to take large truckloads to Romania, also Yugoslavia, Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia, as directed and supplied by the Lord... but that is another story!