Haralan popov biography for kids
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Tortured For His Faith - The One Year Christian History
Tortured For His Faith
Little did he know what lay ahead.
AFTER finishing high school, Haralan Popov left his by in Bulgaria and went to the city of Ruse looking for work. There he lived in a tiny room with Christo, a friend from his village.
One evening Christo invited Haralan to a Baptist church, even though he knew Haralan was a convinced atheist. Haralan was impressed by the beautiful music and the intelligence of the speaker. All he could think about when he returned home that night was the question “Is there a God?” To help Haralan find the answer, Christo introduced him to his friend Petroff. When Petroff explained what Christ meant to him, his face seemed to reflect God’s love, and it became obvious to Haralan that God existed.
As he spent more time with Petroff, Haralan came to understand that he wasn’t seeking God, God was seeking him. He received Jesus Christ as his Savior, and his life was changed!
To pre
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Tortured. Imprisoned for 13 years. Beaten. Starved. Ridiculed. Psychologically abused. This sounds like the makings of a strange horror film, and truly there is much horrific in these words. But by God’s grace Haralan Popov lived through this experience in Communist Bulgaria in the 1940’s and 50’s. A friend gave me his autobiography to read yesterday and it was so masterfully written that I read it in one night, praising God for the life and strength he gives to his servants.
The words of the Lord are trustworthy,
“Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 13:11)
In his story, Brother Popov tells about coming to faith and pasturing a church in Bulgaria. He shares how he was arrested one night and spent more than a decade in prison, suffering unspeakable torture, beatings and trauma that would break any living person. He
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Our Beginning
How we began…
Our story begins in 1948 after the communist occupation of Bulgaria, a land called “Little Russia.”
At 4 a.m. on July 24, 1948, Dr. Haralan Popov, a prominent pastor, was arrested by the Bulgarian Secret Police on false charges of “being a spy” for the United States and Great Britain. In a world publicized “show trial” of 15 arrested pastors, after Stalin’s brainwashing technique and intense torture, Haralan confessed to being a “spy.”
Pastor Popov spent more than 13 years in 16 communist prisons and concentration camps for his uncompromising faith in Jesus Christ. Despite tremendous suffering and torture he continued his work for God inside the prison to reach fellow prisoners.
His only crime was being the pastor of the largest Protestant church in Bulgaria.
A Dedicated Wife
Haralan’s wife, Ruth, a Swedish miss