ESCAPE FROM DEATH
Susan Piraino, Communications Director, asks John Carter about those times when death came knocking.
SP. I have heard that the Mafia came after you in Odessa, Ukraine. What actually happened?
JC. We were running a citywide campaign for Christ in Odessa on the Black Sea in Ukraine. Odessa at that time had a very big Mafia presence. The AIDS rate was one of the highest in the world, the sex trafficking was out of control. Crime was rampant. But great crowds of spiritually starving people attended our meetings. Then the Mafia who controlled the auditorium decided it was time to drive us out.
SP. Why was the Ukrainian Mafia so opposed to your work?
JC. The preaching of the true Gospel is a mighty antidote to sin. People come to Christ and give up their evil ways. Even mafia bosses are converted. We have seen this many times. In Russia we saw the leader of the Mafia in one large city, along with his captains, come to Christ. These men are now my dear friends. But back to Odessa in Ukraine. Some Ukrainians are fiercely nationalistic, and hate foreigners especially from America. They therefore decided to physically drive us off the platform and out the hall. As I was preaching one night to a packed hall, I heard a scuffle and loud thuds coming from behind me. I tried to ignore the uproar and kept on preaching. The scuffling and thuds continued. The audience didn’t move and neither did I. After a while, all was quiet. We finished the meeting with an invitation to accept Christ. When all had quietly left, I found the reason for the disturbance. A group of mafia thugs acting on orders had attempted to storm the stage from the back, throw me off the stage and out of the building.
SP. What stopped them?
JC. They hadn’t counted on two Russians who had traveled from Russia to protect me. These men were national champions trained in the martial arts of self-defense. The loud thuds were the sounds of mafia thugs hitting the ground. God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform, and apparently sometimes uses tough Russian military judo experts. I didn’t debate the theology of the matter but was grateful to God for loyal friends. The Mafia called it quits and saluted me the next night when we arrived at the Palace of Sport, a Communist building designed to glorify sport.