The Dr. Jeff Show Ep. 19 – Virginia Prodan

Episode 19: Summary & Transcript

Disclaimer: Please note that this is an automatically generated transcript. Although the transcription is largely accurate, it may be incomplete or inaccurate in some cases due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

Episode Summary

This interview features Virginia Prodan, a human rights lawyer and author. Prodan shares her personal experiences growing up in communist Romania, her journey to becoming a Christian and a human rights lawyer, and her harrowing encounters with the communist regime, including an assassination attempt. She discusses the dangers of communism and socialism, the importance of religious freedom, and the power of faith in overcoming adversity. The conversation also touches upon the revival of socialist and communist ideologies in the United States and the role of education and personal conviction in combating them.

Episode Transcript

Dr. Jeff Myers (00:02):
Hey gang, it’s Dr. Jeff Myers. Welcome to the Dr. Jeff Show. On this show, we interview major thought leaders in every area of life to talk about how worldview changes everything. My guest today has an incredible story, not only about how she came to know Jesus, but how she narrowly escaped death under the Romanian communist dictator, Nikolai Chachesku.

I’ll let her tell her incredible story. I’ll only hint at it now in the title of her book, which is called Saving My Assassin. Virginia Prodan is a human rights lawyer fighting for religious freedom here and abroad, and will tell us about the deadliness of communism from firsthand experience. Let’s dive right in. Virginia Prodan, welcome to the Dr. Jeff Show.

Virginia Prodan (00:55):
Thank you so very much for having me, Dr. Jeff.

Dr. Jeff Myers (00:59):
This is going to be an amazing conversation because you and I have talked a lot and you have written a book called Saving My Assassin that gets right to the heart of everything that we’re dealing with, with socialism and communism and religious freedom. All of these issues that you experienced firsthand in Romania. And I don’t want to give away too much, but the title of the book, Saving My Assassin, literally goes back to the Romanian regime being so irritated with you as a human rights lawyer that they set out to kill you. And what happened next is one of the most incredible stories that I have seen. So I’m really excited to have our conversation today.

Virginia Prodan (01:48):
Me too. I hope that we will cover everything that will be important to your audience. If not, I know they will read the book and they will find out everything about it, but we will try the best.

Dr. Jeff Myers (02:03):
We will do our best and we’ll put lots of information in the show notes so that if people are interested in getting more information, they will be able to do that and find more of the details. But I’d like for our audience to get to know you a little bit personally before we dig into that part of your story.

You did not grow up as a Christian. You grew up in Romania, but you did not grow up as a Christian. But then you, even in that communist country, you became a human rights lawyer to defend Christians. So tell us a little of what was going on in Romania at that time and how your personal story developed.

Virginia Prodan (02:42):
Yes, you’re right. I didn’t grow up in a Christian family. The earliest memories that I have from maybe the time that I was six years old, I remember my parents being politically correct outside of the home and doing everything that the government will ask them to do in a sense of giving away their rights. And I also heard them inside of a home whispering how horrible the government was and the fact that there is no end. They will give up some rights and tomorrow they will ask for more rights.

So you can imagine that as a kid, I was petrified. I was very concerned and fearful about my future, but I also developed in me a passion to find truth and justice because I realized that adults around me knew the truth, but they were too fearful to speak up for the truth. So I went to law school.

(03:55):
I believed that was the best way to do it. And I will advise your audience to read the book, Saving My Assassin, because they will find out that when you go to a law school or any school in a socialist or communist, you are not deciding your entrance or your possibility to apply, but the government is the one who decided.

At that time, when I applied, I did not know that before the socialist communist government will allow me to go to the entrance process, do the exams at law school, they will look for three questions in my file. And by the way, under socialist and communist, from the time that you are born to the time that you died, you have a file and the government collects all the documents in your file, and you never had the opportunity to say, “Oh, wait a minute, this is wrong and this is wrong and I can prove it.”

(05:06):
No. So the government looked for three questions in my file. The first question was that my parents never organized a revolt against the government. The second one was that my parents were never reported by their own children for saying something in their home against the government. And the third one was that my parents were not Christians. So I was allowed to go to law school.

I want to stop for a second right here because I want to ask each one of the person listening to look in their own life and think about what they think right now that they don’t have. Yes, I did not have Christian parents, but as you will find out from what I’m going to explain, God used what I did not have into something absolutely amazing. So don’t concern yourself about what you don’t have. If God puts on your heart something, do it.

(06:18):
As you will notice, God put on my heart to find the truth and justice. At that time, I thought that was my idea, so I went to law school. So I graduated from law school. I read everything in the law books, in law school in Romania for four years.

I graduated in top 10% of my class, hoping that in those books, I will find the truth. I graduated from law school, and again, readers will find out that when you graduate from law school or any school in socialist and communist, you don’t choose the law firm or you do not apply. The government directs you where to go and work.

And I started to work where the government sended me and I’m a joyful person, I’m a hopeful person. And every single day, I thought today it’s going to be the day when I will find the truth and I will just touch the truth and speak up for the truth.

(07:27):
And one day I came home after a year or something practicing and I was very discouraged. I’m not a queer, but I was very discouraged. I put my briefcase on my secretary’s desk and I said, “I can’t find the truth. I don’t want to be a lawyer anymore.” She looked up at me like, “What are you dreaming? Where are you in your mind? Come back to reality.”

And she gave me three files and said, “There are three people coming to see you and one is in your office.” In other words, get with the program. So I took the files and I was so discouraged and I went inside of my office and indeed the client was there. I had been working with him for more than a year and several times during the time that I worked with him, I noticed that he was joyful, in a joyful land.

(08:29):
He was hopeful, in a hopeful land, but many times I thought, “I need to change this man. He is crazy,” I thought, but I was so busy. I was always one client after another, so I didn’t have time. So here I am walking into my office and sitting on my desk and looking at him full of joy and full of peace. And I hear myself saying, “I want to have in my life what you have in your life.” He looked at me and he said, “Do you go to church?”

And I stared at him thinking, “I knew you were crazy. I don’t know why I asked you.” I didn’t see any connection, but he wrote something and gave it to me and said, “This is the address of our church. Would you come to church?” And I hear myself saying, “Yes.” That was the most dangerous thing that a lawyer in socialist communist Romania would say because the dictators just declared a few months ago or a year ago, he declared God and required all people to worship him.

(09:45):
But you know what? The next Sunday I was at his church and he was there in front of the door waiting for us. And I remember walking inside of the church and I was still, I was with my girls, but I was still very concerned and saying, “I hope the government doesn’t arrest me. I hope the government doesn’t take my license away.” I was fearful about my future, but as I walked inside, I heard the choir singing, “Sinner come home.” And I felt relaxed. I said to myself, “Oh, this is a nice group of people. They have a celebration today. The man behind me is coming home. His name must be sinner.” That’s what I knew about sin.

Dr. Jeff Myers (10:41):
You had no knowledge.

Virginia Prodan (10:44):
Absolutely.

Dr. Jeff Myers (10:45):
No way in an atheist communist country to have even known what sin is or what this whole is all about.

Virginia Prodan (10:53):
No, nothing at all. Nothing at all. No. And my client showed us where to sit and the pastor came and opened the Bible and read John 14:6. Jesus Christ said, “I am the truth away and the life. Nobody comes to the Father except to me.” And I listened and in that big church, everybody was quiet. Imagine that you hear somebody said, “What?” That was me because finally somebody said, “Virginia, I am the truth.”

And that day I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior and I realized the “sinner come home” was a celebration for me, not for anyone else. And from that day on, I understood that God had an appointment on my life. He put the fire in me to find the truth and freedom in order for me to defend Christians and human rights cases because after that, clients will come to me because nobody will take their cases.

(12:09):
And that was what God, it was God who directed my life. So I’m asking every single person to take a minute, even if not now, later on, and ask God, what God put in their heart? What are they saying looking around? Oh, this is not good. It needs to be changed. That might be your mission. Ask the Lord and he will guide you.

Dr. Jeff Myers (12:35):
And that’s exactly what I want our audience members to be thinking about because as they hear you tell your story, what God’s going to do through them, I believe will become clearer.

Virginia Prodan (12:48):
Yes.

Dr. Jeff Myers (12:49):
I know there’s so much we could talk about. We do want to talk about persecution because persecution is growing in the world today, terrible in a lot of other countries. I just did a virtual event and on the Zoom call was somebody from an Eastern European country who is undergoing persecution at this moment as a university professor. But I want to hear how that affected you. When you decided to defend churches and human rights freedom, the freedom of religion in Romania, which was maybe the most brutal of all of the communist countries, what happened?

Virginia Prodan (13:34):
First of all, I want to say that when God gives you a mission, he gives you absolutely everything. You don’t have to have the blueprint, you just have to have faith and trust God. So as a young lawyer, because I was very young, at that time from 12th grade, we were allowed to go to graduate school because we didn’t have college. So I was not even 18 when I started law school.

And when I started to defend Christians, I was 22 or 23 years old. I was very young. I was 82 pounds and under five feet tall. I was not impressive at all, but as you will see, it was God in me who was impressive. So as a young lawyer, what do you do? First of all, you look around and see if there is a law who protects Christians and people speaking up.

(14:39):
So God does amazing things. The United States of America and Ronald Reagan gave Romania the most favored national status attached with respecting human rights. You also have to know that the socialist and communist country works on lies and works on lying to people in any way possible. So that law and that, the most favored national status that Ronald Reagan gave it to Romania was never publicized into the public in Romania. We had laws in the book, but not accessible to the public.

So I went to the library to look for books, to find out a book. And I prayed and I learned a very important lesson: to listen to the Lord. So I went to the library and, usually, I found out later on, usually that most favored national law was kept under lock. But that day when I went to the library in a very special area, reserve area, somebody forgot the book outside and I read it.

(16:08):
The Lord asked me to make copies and I did. And later on, I found out why. Because when I started to defend Christians, like Christians who will share the Bible from one church to another for vacation Bible school will be arrested or Christians that will want to watch the Jesus movie in their own home and somebody from their home betray them and call the police, will come.

The police will come and arrest them, arrest the parents and tell the children to orphanages never to be seen again. Churches will be demolished because the government will not give them permission to keep up the church. So I started to defend those churches and Christians and I will never forget the first reaction of the judge and prosecutor. When I said, “We have laws in the book and you have to respect them.” They look at me like, “You’re crazy.”

(17:20):
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” And I remember that the Lord asked me to make copies. So I went to my briefcase and I gave it to them and they turned red. Oh, they were so furious and the judge said, “We have to look at those laws,” he said, “And make a decision and we will make a decision tomorrow morning about the case.” Well, late at night, I did what the government told us that we cannot do, but there was not a law against that.

And they said that we cannot listen to the voice of America and free Europe. And I listened after I put my kids to sleep because I wanted to know what’s going on around the Berlin Wall. So I’m listening to all the news and everything and all of a sudden I realized that I became news. They were telling about what I did in the courtroom and how I gave documents to the judge and everything.

(18:26):
And I was very happy that the world knew about, but in the same time, I was fearful because I knew that the government secretary was outside of my door and they were able to come at any time and arrest or kill me, pretending that I am a spy for America.

Dr. Jeff Myers (18:48):
Right. So to kind of give a little bit more context here, Romania, the dictator, he had no intention of following human rights law, but he did want the most favored nation trade status so that he could become wealthy off, even though everybody was supposed to have their fair share, he wanted to become wealthy off of stealing American secrets and so forth. And that status is what you used then, because they had to agree to do certain things in the country, and you took that agreement and said, “This is what you’ve agreed to do.”

Virginia Prodan (19:27):
Yes, that is correct.

Dr. Jeff Myers (19:29):
They needed you out of the way, I guess is the next thing. So you’re this young lady with a couple of kids and they needed you out of the way because you had pointed out the central contradiction that would ultimately bring down this regime.

Virginia Prodan (19:48):
Yes.

Dr. Jeff Myers (19:48):
Have I got that about right?

Virginia Prodan (19:51):
Yes. Not only that, but unknown to me, my cases, because I forced them to give me, you know, to release my clients that were arrested for Bibles and so forth. Congressmen like Christopher Smith and Frank Wolf will come to Romania and will talk with me. United Nation reports will have my cases about violations of human rights, United States Department of State. So the dictator was exposed. Yes, he was determined to make me disappear.

Dr. Jeff Myers (20:33):
And this leads to the most tense moment in the book that you write. Tell us about how the government intended to kill you.

Virginia Prodan (20:48):
First of all, the arrested, beaten, torture me every single day, every single day, asking me to stop, asking King me to sign papers saying that I’m not mentally capable, that I invent things and everything. And I said, no. And in the interrogation room, I learned the power of God and loving your enemies full of blood as the Lord asked me to share his love with them.

I remember saying, “I don’t like what you are doing, but God loves you and I choose to love you.” And they will turn their heads crying because they didn’t know what to do with me. Only in heaven, I will know. But that was not sufficient for them. Dictator wanted me dead. So because they had microphones everywhere at home and in my office, they knew my schedule and my whereabouts. So they sent a client to my office exactly when my assistant was ready to go and pick up her kids.

(22:04):
So she invited the client, the new client in my office, and she left. The minute that my new client, six, 10 feet tall, heard that my assistant locked the door to the office, he pulled his jacket to his gun and pointed to my face and said, “I am not a client. I’m here to kill you.” And he explained to me how the dictator sent him, how he’s going to kill me and why and so forth. I was fearful. I thought that that was my last moment. My knee was shaking, my stomach was making noise. I hurt my heart in my ears.

(22:50):
It was so much noise inside of me, but also so much noise from him because he was continually screaming and saying how he’s going to kill me. I mean, all this noise, I heard the whisper of God saying, “Share the gospel.” Wow. And I did, but I shared the gospel word by word because we didn’t have Bibles in Romania or we had them for a short period of time. We memorized the gospel, we memorized lots of things. So it was very easy for me.

So as I am reciting the Bible to him, I noticed that he put his gun down, his shoulder relaxed, he noticed several times, and I felt like he was melting under God’s power. And as I watch mesmerized, I have never seen something like this, the power of God’s word by word, changing a criminal, an assassin. I said to myself, “When I’m finished, he’s going to kill me.”

(24:01):
And that stopped my thoughts. So I tried to paraphrase two sentences and I was petrified because the minute that I used my own words, he came back to six foot ten, I’m here for a mission and so forth. So I prayed like never before. And the Lord dropped back the Bible verses and to make the story short, at the end he accepted Christ. Wow. Wow.

I remember sitting there in my chair, I don’t know for how long, and thinking about what happened, and not only that, but years later, years later, he came to my law office in Dallas, Texas, and I didn’t recognize him. He came with a king for his son, a pastor in this area, and when he realized that I don’t have a clue who he is, he showed me his secretary ID that looked just like him. Wow. And for a second, I relived that moment in Romania.

(25:19):
He explained to me that after the revolution, he had an accident and he went back to. he enrolled in theological seminary. He is a pastor. He built a school in Romania and did amazing things that were forbidden under the communist regime. And he asked me, because I was telling him that I’m writing my memoir, he asked me if he can write a chapter and indeed he wrote a chapter in my book. So now you have my point of view of that day and his point of view. And God shows us that we are people.

Those interrogators, cruel, and him as an assassin, God showed me that they were just people that Christ died for them and he used me to bring them from the tent of the enemy Satan, the evil one to Christ. We do not have human enemies. We have the evil one as our enemy, but God uses us even for people that we don’t like or will do bad things to us, to bring them to be a tool in his hands, that they will see Christ in us and they will be brought by Christ to the cross. So that’s our mission.

Dr. Jeff Myers (26:56):
Yeah. Yeah. This is one of the most amazing stories that I have heard. It changes the whole calculus about, love your enemy. I mean, you were literally doing that. And this man came to Christ who came into your office with a God and said that he was instructed to kill you. Later on became a pastor. And you said that you were fearful in that situation, but you pressed forward. I mean, how?

Virginia Prodan (27:30):
Because in the pain of suffering every single day that they arrested me and beat me and tortured me in the interrogation room, those people had no idea that they were training me. Anytime they will hit my head to the table or slap me with their gun, sometimes on my face, that blood will burst out of my nose or mouth or hit me into the walls. They had no idea that they were pushing me in the loving arms of Jesus.

That in that moment, when I had nobody with me, I felt God’s arms around me. I heard him whispering, “I love you. I am with you until the end.” I realized that people in front of me are nothing but people that Christ died for them. They have a precious price and a precious value in God’s kingdom and God wanted them. What an honor to suffer for a little while, that Christ can bring them to him.

(28:54):
I didn’t blame that. I just learned day by day that I have a powerful God that he, and suffering for him and with him was an honor and a privilege. Not that I’m looking for persecution, nobody, none of us, but God equips us for everything that we have to go through.

Dr. Jeff Myers (29:20):
Yeah. Wow. I have to collect my thoughts for a minute. That’s incredibly powerful of a thing to hear in a world where persecution is growing.

Virginia Prodan (29:37):
Yes.

Dr. Jeff Myers (29:38):
The power of Christ is above all of it.

Virginia Prodan (29:41):
Yes.

Dr. Jeff Myers (29:43):
You came from that situation, and you tell about this in the book, you were rescued by the President Reagan administration and brought to the United States of America. And you came to believe through that experience that America and its freedom and its free markets offered you a chance that would never have happened under a communist or socialist regime to make a fresh start. Can you tell us a little bit about that part of your life?

Virginia Prodan (30:21):
When I was in Romania, and people will find out the reason why President Ronald Reagan got involved is because I got a special assignment from the Lord and one day I received some documents and I knew the next day was, I will go outside of my home, I will be interrogated and searched.

So I created a packet in my suit and I put the documents there with the intention to give it to the American embassy later because they will always come to the courtroom when I had my cases. So as I put those documents in and I went the next day I was interrogated, I was beaten, but they forgot to search me. Wow. And I was able to give those documents to the American Ambassador at the American Embassy. Later on, I listened to Voice of America. I heard that President Reynold Reagan has special documents on his desk.

(31:45):
I thought only American people can do something like this so fast. And President Ronald Reagan decided to take the most favored national status from Romania. And that’s the reason why the dictator the next day sent an assassin to kill me. And I want to say that later on, when President Ronald Reagan found out about the assassin, he contacted and his cabinet contacted the dictator and said, “We will give you the most favored national status for six more months or a year, I don’t remember correctly, with one condition to let Virginia and her family to come to America today.”

Our dictator said, deal, but it will happen in a month. He had a reason, a bad reason to do it, but God did not allow him to do it. What I want to say to your listener and viewers is this, I had no idea. I found out later on when I met President Ronald Reagan about this discussion, but I want to say when you follow Christ and you do what he’s saying, remember, you are a child of God and God will put the most powerful person in the world to protect you.

(33:14):
He did it in my case and shows the character and the power of God. And he saved me. I came to America empty handed because the government kept everything that I worked for 12 years as a lawyer and I came with my kids and my husband. Later on, my husband left us. And at that time, I didn’t know one word in English.

I didn’t have any money, but God helped me to learn English, to find work, and to go to law school, to SMU here in Dallas, Texas, and graduate from law school and built my law firm. I raised three kids who went to very good schools, for the first daughter, SMU, the second daughter, Harvard Law School, and my son to the Air Force Academy. And not only that, but they served the Lord and they honored the Lord where they work now as business people in their area.

(34:28):
America is the best country in the world. It’s not perfect because we are not perfect, but offers everyone who wants to rebuild their lives. And now I go and speak all over the world in America and all over the world about what God can do in one life. Each one of us, we have skill, talents, and a mission that God gave us to use those skills and to use this mission to encourage others and to honor him because he is the hope. He is the hope and he can use us.

He used me to change Romania from a socialist country to a capitalist country, a democratic country, and he can use each one of us to change our school, our area, our business, our neighborhood for his kingdom. The power is in us. We don’t have to wait for someone else to do it. We have to do it with the skills and talents that he provides and he will provide the rest.

Dr. Jeff Myers (35:38):
Yeah. As our students grow up, they leave Summit ministries, they’re going into the workforce in all these different areas. And your son is one of our graduates, very proud of him. Do you see the socialist communist threat reviving in our country, in our time? A lot of people are talking about this, and I’m just curious what your perspective is.

Virginia Prodan (36:09):
Yes, I see it, but I want to say it, maybe I never said this to you. And I want to say that you are doing an excellent job, and I spoke several times to your place in Summit Ministry in Colorado Spring. And you know what? Several times I received emails from your students saying that they bought books for their professors and for their classmates, they read it and then they talked with their professors and they said, “Look what socialist and communist is all about.” And many of the professors changed their minds.

In fact, they said it was only one. And one of your students said, “Sir, this is her business card. She is a living person. You can call her and talk to her about everything that you don’t believe us.” So I believe that the students that still believe in socialists and communists, the people that never traveled to a socialist country, they never heard about someone to tell them about.

(37:21):
They believe in the lies that everything is free. When the government gives you something that they control you 100% and you become a puppet in their hands and you hate your life, you don’t have freedom at all. You are just a puppet in there. The government has the control on products and area. They will dictate where you live, where you go to school, what you say and what you cannot say.

(37:58):
In fact, one of my clients was put in Romania, was put in a pediatric hospital and he said that was the only place where I was allowed to speak the truth because they consider me crazy. So I don’t think that if people know and understand correctly the implication of a socialist and communist system over our freedom, that they will agree to build something like this.

But everywhere I went, in a conservative or non-conservative school or environment, in the beginning, I had seen some of the students being restless like, “Oh, let’s see what you’re going to tell us and everything.” And then many of them courageously will stand up and say, “Ma’am, nobody told us about this part of the story. You lived it. We don’t want to create something like this.” And I’m very encouraged. We just have to be very active like a ministry.

(39:07):
It’s active and training the student, training the parents, training everyone. I want to share one thing that one of your students called me and said to me, he was not part of the student that was in college, but you do, also, training for adults. Yes. Okay. So one of the people that you train did the following.

This young person called me and said, “I just went to visit my aunt and we had a great time and I was at the door ready to leave.” And she came, “Hold on, hold on, hold on just one second.” She gave me your book, Saving My Assassin. And she said, “You know what? I read this book and it sounds interesting. Would you please read it and tell me what you think about it?” And he said, “Ma’am, I read your book and captured me and it changed my mind and my heart and my vote.”

(40:18):
“And the reason I’m calling you is because I want you to do what my aunt did and I want you to tell others to approach young people this way because if my aunt would have said, ‘Oh, forget about your craziness about socialism. Read this book and be educated.’ I will never open the book, but try in a positive way. Try like she tried.” And I can’t take credit for that, but one of your adult students did that.

So I want to give credit to the ministry and what you are doing because we have to educate everyone. If it is an adult, if he’s a pastor, if he is an educator, if he’s a student, try to educate, try to give them the book as a gift for their graduation or whatever reason might be, or ask like this and say, tell me what you think about this book.

Dr. Jeff Myers (41:28):
That’s a really simple, sneaky question, isn’t it? Just tell me what you think about this. Start the discussion and give people a chance to see how that turns out. Well, Virginia, it’s been a pleasure to have you on the show today. Thank you for sharing your story with us and being vulnerable about the difficulties that you went through because we need to see not only the growing threats that we face to our own freedom, to be prepared to defend our freedom, but the power of Christ in us, even in the most difficult moments. So grateful you came on the show today.

Virginia Prodan (42:06):
Thank you so very much for having me. I have to say it. I love, also, live events. And the reason is, one, is because people can see how tiny I am. I’m five feet tall, 100 pounds. But also, I love, because students, like in your bookstore, a student lined up and for hours they ask questions and many of them ask questions. Sometimes they don’t want anybody else to ask the question and everything. So life events are very powerful because I can have that relationship with your students.

And also, I spoke at your events with the adults and that was the same thing. Adults love to learn how to relate to students and how to share what I can share. And I love both. I love those kinds of events, but I believe that also the powerful ones are the life events where they can ask questions and sometimes if they want to ask question, particular question, yeah, that is good.

(43:23):
But I want to congratulate you for beating the cancer, for being stronger, courageous. We pray for you. And I want to congratulate you on your mission and your determination to change the next generation to prepare every generation, different types of adults, parents or grandparents, and change America by changing one life at a time. This is how I do it every single day. Sometimes I train people as individuals or as a group, and that’s how we can change America. One person of the time, one group at the time, and you are doing an excellent job on that. I’m praising God for your ministry.

Dr. Jeff Myers (44:11):
Yeah. Well, thank you. I appreciate it so much. And we’ll have all the information for people if they want to reach out to you in the show notes, because I think that might lead to some great opportunities as well. Virginia Prodan, thank you. So grateful you’re on the show today.

Virginia Prodan (44:28):
Thank you so much for having me, Jeff. Appreciate you and appreciate all your work. To God will be the glory.

Dr. Jeff Myers (44:35):
Amen. Thank you for joining me on the Dr. Jeff Show to hear the incredible, true story from Virginia Prodan. You can read all about her story in Saving My Assassin, which is available on her website, virginiaprodanbooks.com. And you can also follow her on Twitter @VirginiaProdan. The dangers of communism are real. The abuse of power and dictatorships, that’s real. But in Jesus, we know our identity and that’s what we can stand on. We may not face an assassin like Virginia did, but we can take a stand wherever we happen to be. God bless you and we’ll see you next week.

Ryan Dobson (45:20):
Hi, everyone. This is Ryan Dobson from Rebel Parenting. When my parents, Jim and Shirley Dobson chose Summit Ministries Worldview Conference for me when I was 17, who knew how completely transformed my life would be in two short weeks? It changed me so much, I’ve returned every summer for 34 years.

Summit Worldview Conferences challenge students ages 16 to 25 to think deeper about their faith and convictions by engaging with today’s top worldview thinkers and apologists. This summer, your student can attend an in- person conference, that’s right, in person or summit’s amazing virtual experience. They will be equipped to vigorously articulate biblical truth, meaningfully impact culture, and curb the influence of false worldviews. Join Summit this summer and change the trajectory of your students’ life forever. Click the link in the show notes to learn more.