The Eric Metaxas Show - Gheorghe Ignat

Episode Date: March 2, 2023

Gheorghe Ignat from Romania, an ex-Greco Roman Wrestling and MMA Heavy weight Champion, shares his amazing faith-journey among corrupt actors in both his own country and Great Britain.

Folks, welcome to the Eric Mataxis show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy p.m.investments.com. That's legacy p.m. Investments.com. Welcome to the Eric Mataxis show. Did you like your gravy thick and rich and loaded with creamy mushrooms? If no one was looking, would you chug the whole gravy boat? Chug, chug, chug, chug.

Stay tuned. Here comes Mr. Chug-a-lug-lug-lug-mug. self, Eric Ma, Texas. Hello there, folks. Hello, Albin. Hello, Eric. I hope people are excited tonight. I'm excited.

Tonight at 6.45 p.m. Eastern, Sharp. You might be listening to this while we're already doing it or while you're going to bed and it already happened. But we've never done it ever in over 20 years. We're live streaming our Socrates event with Jeannie Constantine. I'm just about finished rereading the book. It is literally one of the best books I have ever read. There's no question. It deepens, it has deepened my faith. There is no question about it. It is amazing. The Crucifixion of the King of Glory. So we're talking about that tonight. You can sign up for the live stream. It's 10 bucks to sign up. Go to Socratesoncity.com.

And you can watch it live. I'm going to be singing The Candy Man because a lot of people don't realize in Socrates circles at the live events, I'm considered the white Sammy Davis. And that's just a thing we do. And I want to just say, you know, you tune in. You'll be part of that group that sees that side of me. You know, because I got the jewelry and the bell bottoms and that's just who I am. Okay. So, Alvin, today, both hours.

This is like a Miracle Monday thing, even though it's Tuesday. we are interviewing George Egnott. This guy, folks, you want to hear a story? You stay tuned. Buckle your seatbelts. He is,

he was a wrestler in Romania, huge, powerful man who got involved with criminal elements all kind of like stuff you can't believe. God came into his life. I mean, it's one of those stories.

And when we, when we got him, I said, I want the whole story. So that's coming up both hours today. This is Romanian wrestler Tuesday for all those listening out there. That's right. People have been asking, when are you going to do that today?

Yeah. I also want to mention where I've just been. I did an event for Colorado Christian University recently. I've spoken there a few times. But you know what? There are just a tiny handful of universities that are holding the line that I would trust somebody and say you should send your kid there. Colorado Christian University right at the top of the list, tiny list, but I'm telling you,

I was so thrilled to be with them, Colorado Christian University. After that, I went to basically to Toledo, a small town, Monclova, Ohio, writes near Toledo. And, you know, people keep saying, what are the churches that are standing firm that are heroic? And would you make a list of them? And I'm beginning to do that. And for sure, redemption church in Monclova, Ohio, redemption church. Pastor Steve, really young guy, brilliant, wonderful. I did three events there. I mean, I did two services on Sunday morning, and then we did a big Q&A event in the evening

with pastors and stuff. But it's Redemption Church in Monclova, Ohio. If you can drive there. I just, I'm so excited when I discover these places. And there are more. We'll get to them. But that was great. This weekend, I'm going to be in St. Louis for a conference.

You can check out everything in my website, Ericbrtaxas.com. If you're anywhere near St. Louis, check it out. Like, it would be just be fun to meet you stuff. Two things to mention before we go to our big, our big, well, to our story with, I mean, again, it's one of those stories. and we've got both hours today. But I want to mention that we're doing for the next number of weeks, we're doing one of our campaigns with Food for the Poor. Some of you know food for the poor.

We work with them every year. And most people who listen to this program, you know, we'd like to think that you trust us and that you trust that the sponsors we have on this program are reputable. And that we're behind them. We'd like you also to know that when we do a campaign for an organization like Food for the Poor, they're not just somebody who comes to us and says, hey, will you help us? We believe in what they're doing. So food for the poor kind of set the title of the organization says it all.

They basically feed those who are starving or malnourished, right? So right now through the Caribbean and Latin America, access to food. has been cut off because of the insane impact of COVID, natural disasters, inflation, kind of like what's happening in Biden's America only 10 times worse. That's where we're going if we don't repent and turn the ship around, right? But in the agricultural communities where food for the poor ministers, fewer harvests, just literally not enough food also because of drought. flooding. This is mostly in Central America, right? So that's where we come in, and it's why once

and why we'll do a campaign and ask you to give. So you can go to metaxis talk.com and click on the banner. We all need to give something someplace. And the question is where? Actually, we have a clip I want to play. Paul Jacobs. He's with Food for the Poor. Let's play that clip. Here in Guatemala, we have visited families that go without the basics of life. We have seen the pain after the pandemic. Things have been opening up, but for many families, it still remains difficult. The work begins in your heart. There's a scripture that says in Galatians 210. All they asked was that we remember the poor. We're asking you to remember the poor. Please make a difference right now. Anyway, so you can make a difference. I hope you will by going to metaxis talk.com,

clicking on the banner. Or obviously, as usual, we have a phone number. If you're driving, maybe you can't write down the number. We're going to get real simple. You can text the keyword Eric to 911-999. Text the keyword Eric. That's with a C, Eric, to 911-999. Text the keyword Eric to 911-999.

The phone number, I promised, 844-863-4673. 844-863-4-8673. We don't do this, you know, every month, but whenever we do it, we want to say to anybody who is interested, some people can just give a little bit. most of us can just give a little bit, but there are people out there. If you can give $10,000, obviously it's tax deductible, the food for the poor. It would be my honor to meet you and anyone you like for dinner someplace in a mutually convenient location. I just put that out there because there's some people that would want to do that or give a gift of that to somebody who'd

want to spend the evening with me or with me in Albin in New York or if I'm with Suzanne or whatever suits you, frankly. But most of us can just give a little bit. And that's what we're hoping is that everybody will do what they can. So again, you got to go to metaxistalk.com. This is feeding hungry people, right? We live in a broken world. There's evil in this world. It's a sin-sick world. And if your eyes are open, you realize that's true. You realize that relatively speaking, you're blessed. and you can do something about it. So the easiest thing is, of course, go to metaxis talk.com and you'll see the banner.

Again, there's a phone number, 844-8663 Hope, 844-863 Hope, 844-8663 Hope. Or if you prefer to text, you can text Eric, just the word Eric, to 911-999. That's 911-9-9-9-9-9-9. nine. Albin, you're going to be there tonight, right? Yeah, there's a lot of snow here in Terrytown, but I'm going to try to get on that train, chug, chug, chug, and come on in and see. It's going to be a great event. Great event.

I can't get over her book. I mean, I keep, I'm like a blithering idiot because what she has done in this book, first of all, it's so well written. It's so easy. to read. That's what's amazing. It's brilliant scholarship. Anyway, folks, if you get this in time, you can sign up for the live stream. You'll be a part of something crazy and important. We need encouragement. We need encouragement. So you go to Sokhti's in the city.com and you can click through the events for the live stream. Join us tonight. Okay, we'll be right back. In case you haven't been paying attention, the Biden administration has caused a financial crisis

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with the offer code Eric. Hey there, folks. Welcome to the program. I have a very special guest on. And I just want to say he is in Romania. He has an unbelievable story. Most God stories are pretty unbelievable, except they're true. And, you know, I asked him, my first question when I'm talking to guests is I want to know how to pronounce your name. And he did the typical thing. He told me, oh, George, I said, no, no, no, no, no. In Romanian, what do they call you?

and he said, Jorge, Giorgi, and I said, that's your name. So I have the privilege right now of speaking to Giorgi, Ignat, from Romania, Jorgé, I am very excited to hear your story. Welcome to the program.

Thank you so much, Eric. The privilege is mine, and all I want to say, praise God, for this privilege to be with you guys. Listen, your story is so amazing. I routinely have folks with amazing stories on this, program because I think we need hope. We need to see that God is alive. God is changing lives

dramatically. And that's your story. And just to tell people, you know, you were an ex, you were a Greco-Roman wrestling champion. You got into MMA mixed martial arts heavyweight champion. Unbelievable stuff. You were arrested. Your story is it ends up being a beautiful story, but I want to go through this story because God found you and I, whenever I hear a story like this, I'm just, I'm blessed.

So I said, I want my audience to hear your story. So let's start from the beginning. What part of Romania are you in? We live in northern side. It is an area called Suchava. We are just 40 kilometers away from the Ukrainian border. So it's a kind of northeast Romania.

Okay, 40 kilometers from the Ukrainian border? Yep. Okay, we are going to eventually talk about your ministry to Ukrainian orphans. You have been doing unbelievable work, folks. When you hear that, you're going to see, oh, Christianity does make a difference in some people's lives. Amazing, amazing. But first, we want to get to the story. I had the privilege of speaking in Klujna Poka.

And I've had at least one of my books, my Bonhoeffer book, translated into Romanian. And I was just so delighted when I visited Romania. But I'm excited to hear your story about growing up in Romania. So tell us how did you get involved? You're obviously a big guy. How did you get involved in wrestling and mixed martial arts? Tell us that story. So I was born in 1983, Eric, in northern side of Romania.

here, obviously under the communist regime. I grew up on the countryside, and I was raised until the age of seven by my grandmother. So we grew up quite poor in that communist environment. You could not literally have anything or own anything. And I remember growing with my grandmother. She didn't have many animals, but she had a cow that she would not. milk and she had a few chickens that will give us the eggs that we needed, you know, every day. And I remember that, and this is one episode I want to go through.

I was like five years old when these people were coming once a week to collect the eggs for the Communist Party. So the Communist Party were sending people to collect the eggs, the baby lambs, baby cows, or whatever that the, you know, animals we had around. we have to share with the Communist Party. And I remember this lady coming in with a gentleman asking for the eggs for that week. And my grandmother was so sad saying, you know, the chickens did not egg enough to be able to share with them. We barely have for us.

And I was a small kid. And I remember my grandma has a basket with a couple of eggs under the bed. And I told in my mind that she forget about those eggs, right? and I'm jumping on my feet and I'm just bending under the bed and I'm pulling out those eggs. And I'm like, here it is, grandma, you forget about this. So that lady understood that my grandmother just trying to put some eggs on the side for us,

but they still took the eggs and just made my grandmother to pay attention to not these things to repeat. So we didn't have eggs for a couple of days. So just an example of how life was in Romania, at that time. Well, I... George, I wanted to just say to my audience,

folks, my mother grew up in East Germany and most of my relatives who didn't leave East Germany lived under this until the 90s. And I want to say

this is what socialism is, this is what communism is, this is the state crushing you, taking from you, everything. And more, More than everything.

The food from your children's mouths, it is evil. And we in America have been so spoiled that we are foolishly opened the door to these kinds of things. And when I hear stories like this, I want to get tears in my eyes because I can't even, when you think of your story is multiplied by millions of stories in the former Soviet Union under Chowcelskou, horrible, horrible things. So you experienced this. So George, continue your story, but thank you. Because we hear, Eric, just two words about this. We are watching your country and your politics. I don't want to get politics or anything, but guys, whatever happens there, it comes here eventually.

So we are very careful. We pray for what's going on over there. We have high hopes. You know, God will move things and will change things. And, you know, eventually, because we know that whatever this is, you guys deciding there is affecting us also. It's coming. George,

I talk about this all the time. The reason I want America to be strong is for the sake of the other nations around the world, not for America, for the other nations around the world to give them hope. And people need to understand that that's a biblical worldview, folks. But we're continuing with George to get his story. So George, so you grew up in that environment.

Please continue. Yes. So at seven years of age, I moved to Suchava. It's a city with not more than 150,000 people right now. Back then, it was less. I started going to school. You know, I was a big kid since I was small.

So since I was small, I was a big kid. You're still a big kid. I'm still a big kid. Very good. My wife will say the same. You're a huge kid. You're obviously very big, muscular, and that's part of your story. Yeah.

I'm trying to keep muscular. but with the amount of work I have, I'm not being visiting the gym recently, but anyway, so I got here in the town where life was much tougher than on the countryside. And I had to face a lot of bullying, Eric. A lot of bullying. I was a big kid, but, you know,

small as age and big as a body, afraid of, you know, the new environment that I came in. So I got to be bullied a lot, a lot. And in response to being bullied, I was looking to go in practice a sport that would help me to defend in front of the kids that were, you know, they continuously bullying me. So this is how I got 12 years of age in the Greco-Roman wrestling gym in the city of Suchava. I went there, I remember like he was yesterday, even if he was more than 25 years ago.

I remember walking in this gym and seeing all this, like more than 40 guys, you know, half naked, all sweat. They were training and pushing and grappling. I remember looking all those pictures on the wall, seeing all these champions with medals around their necks and everything, and next and everything. And I remember the coach coming to me asking me what I want to do. I said, I want to practice wrestling.

He looked at me and said, how old are you? And I said, 12. And he looked at me again and said, how old are you? I said 12. He said, okay, I need to put you to put you on a scale to see how much you wait and how tall are you. And so we went to the local room and at that point I was 100 kilos at the years of age. 220 pounds, ladies and gentlemen, for those of you. More than 220 pounds, yeah.

100 kilos. Yeah, in 175. I don't know how much is that. Wait a minute, wait, wait, wait, wait. You are how many kilos? 100 kilos and 1.75, 1 meter 75 centimeters. Okay, 100 kilos is 220 pounds at age 12 and 1.75 meters. We can do the math later because we have our computers are in the other room. But the point is to be a 12 year old who weighs 220 pounds. You are big. How tall are you now? How tall are you now, Taurus? No, I'm 150.

Last night when I, when I, 150 kilos, that's three. Wait a minute. 320. 310, I don't know. You're 310 pounds, but how tall are you now? How tall are you? Yeah. I'm 191.

1.191. Okay. So, what? 6.3. All right. I think we've established. You're a very big boy. Over 300 pounds, 6-3, extremely strong MMA champion, was an MMA champion. And that's just the beginning of the story. We're coming back with George Ignat from Romania.

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phone, call the toll-free number 844-863. Hope. 844-863 Hope. 844-863 Hope. God bless you. I'm talking to George Ignat, or as it's pronounced in Romania, Georgie Ignat, from Romania. And we're talking, George, to you about, thanks for letting me call you, George, about your experience. So at age 12, you are 200 pounds, gigantic. and you very quickly become a champion in the entire nation of Romania at age 14. Yeah.

So the coach, you know, saw how much I weighed in my height, and he just pulled my hand and grab my hand. I said, kid, stay with me. I will make you a champion. And it was great for me to hear that because I saw the pictures of all these big guys with medals around their necks. And I said, yes, I want to be the champion. I never knew what's going to happen after how much work, dedication, effort, sweat I have to put in. But all I wanted was to be able to defend against the children that were bullying me. But now there was a different perspective, not only to defend, but to become a champion.

And two years later, one year and in months later, I was becoming the national champion. at my age and kilos category in Romania, I defended this title for eight years in a row. I have a total 10 titles of a national champion. You are the national champion for 10 times eight years in a row from the age of 14, obviously, to 22. So you became a champion pretty quickly and remained a champion. What happened later on? years. What happened was

I was part of the national team. At the 14 years of age, I was selected to be part of the national team. At the 16, I was selected to be part of the Olympic team, which was a great thing at the time because I was the youngest wrestler to be selected in the Olympic team. Olympic team means

wrestlers 21 and above. This was for the 2000 Olympics. After the 2000 Olympics, exactly after the team come back from Sydney, they call me to join the team. And, you know, my coach and the coaches, the Olympic coaches, really having high hopes that George will qualify for the Athens to 2004.

But in the meantime, something happened in my life and things were switched a little bit and I have to face different situations. When I was around 17 years of age, Eric, I was in Bucharest meeting a friend. who put me in touch with some guys that they were presented to me as being businessmen, wealthy businessmen. Yeah. I, you know, it's difficult for me to express coming from a poor background what it meant to me to meet these guys who have like, they were very open. They were, you know, they just embraced me as friends.

And, you know, they were like people driving really, really luxurious cars, living in a nice houses, you know, they went shopping for me. They put clothes. I was, at that age, I was only dreaming to have a brand new Adidas track suit. It was a dream. I was the European Championship in Bratislava a year before that moment. And I remember I was staring at this track suit in a shop window for half an hour. It was, I don't know if I can say the name, but it was a big brand with Real Madrid.

logo on the chest. I was a fan. Real Madrid fun. And I was just dreaming and just imagining how that, how good that truck suit will be, will fit my body and how beautiful will be one day to be one day to be able to buy one of those because that truck suit costs around eight or nine months of my paying. Wow. Wow. Well, this is the story of how people get sucked in by crime and corruption, people, those people who came around you, this story is as old as humanity. They took advantage of you, your innocence, and they pulled you in to something that you didn't know what you were getting into. They pulled me into something. And you know, I have a very good education at home. My parents are just very hard work, honest people, you know, and I had this

good education. And when I was pulled into this, literally pulled into by the luxurious life, by the money they were around, thinking that I have no future in sport by making a living, I was get, you know, I got into this. Very soon after, I realized that those people were not businessmen. They were having businesses, you know, up front, but they were like leaders of the organized crime of Bucharest of the years 2000, right? But at that time in Romania, Eric, it was two ways you could go. as an athlete, especially a heavyweight wrestler,

you either go and join the armed forces of police or the army, you either go and join those guys. There were two options you had in an athlete. Going and join the army, you will only get you the small salary and, you know, and it was two options only for people like me coming from a poor background and everything. Anyway, meeting these guys,

they switch my head around. So from there, I continue. I started to get into a life of crime and life of sport. There were two separate lives. I thought I can keep this and I can hold this together. My family never knew anything. My mom would know she would just beat me up as big as I was. So that was not possible.

But you know what? I was not 19 when I used to drive a very nice BMW, you know, black, big car, tinted windows and all kind of these things that, that, youths are so much after. So my message to the youths out there, especially to those who have a dream, because I had a dream. My dream was to go to the Olympics, eventually become an Olympic medalist. But I give up on my dream for this easy money that anyway they come and go very, very fast. This story is as old as the hills, and we people are tempted. And by the grace of God, he pulled you out of this. But there's much more to the story, folks. It's extraordinary.

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and use promo code Eric or call 1-800-978-3057 and you'll get huge discounts on all MyPillow betting products, including the Giza Dream Bedsheets for as low as 2998 and get all your shopping done now while quantities last. Again, use code Eric and save mypillow.com. Hey there folks. I'm talking to George Ignat from Romania. We're hearing his amazing story. So George, you're very young and you're sucked into this life of, you know, we've heard about Russian oligarchs.

We forget about the Romanian oligarchs. These are people with a lot of money, criminals, and they pull in, especially someone like you. And so you have all the trappings of wealth and luxury. And I know that you got married around this time and you moved to London. I moved to London after spending a few years in Bucharest with these people. In the same time, I was practicing wrestling. Yeah?

For because of a personal, stupid decision, I'm not going into details. It's coming in my new book right now. He's a testimony of my life called, he called me Son. And hopefully I will have the chance to publish it with a T. again because I published already a book with TBN last year, but it's not my testimony, it's just part of my testimony. The second volume, this story is coming in. But because of a stupid decision, I missed going to the 2004 Olympics.

And that was something that really destabilized me, you know, mentally I could not forget myself for taking this decision and losing my place in the Olympic team. And from there, I just carry on with the life of crime. I just wanted to make more money overnight, more and more money have more. And when you sucked into something like this, it never ends and is never enough into one more and more and more. So I moved to London literally after spending three years in Bucharest with these people because I wanted to start it all over again. My promise was I go to London and I start working there, keep doing my sport. And starting all of, that was the desire of my heart at the time.

I was just 20, maybe 21, 22 when I moved to London. And I wanted so much, so much to start it all over again. And I promise myself, I will not get in troubles. I will not get in a crime life again. I'm just going to work because I had friends there who were running security in few clubs in central London, like very exclusivist clubs. And the offer for me was George, you're so big. and your background in wrestling,

you threw a suit, a nice suit and a tie on you, any oligarch, any rich Arab would like to have you next to him and will pay big money. So, you know, while staying in Bucharest, just come over. So I moved to London. Yeah, in the meantime, I got married with Adriana, with my beautiful wife, which we now have a great family, four kids, and so on.

In London, working as a bodyguard in this night. club in London with a team, a strong team of Romanians, all ex-wrestlers, boxers, rugby players, all tough young guys, ex-all athletes, living in the same place, doing the same work, running like three or four nightclubs security-wise in central London, making again really big money, money that when we were practicing sport in Romania, we were just dreaming about. In that place, in that house, we were living in Northern London in Hampstead on a street called Bishop's Avenue, the Millionaire's Road. We were offered by an Indian billionaire this house to live in for free, a couple of million pounds house, to live in for free. But we were in exchange of security services a couple of times a year.

So a couple of times this guy was asking us to have like five guys, ten guys, you know, going here and there for a few events with him. and he will let us live in this huge mansion on Bishop's Avenue. In this house, and now it's the interesting thing, in this house you were like 12, 13 big guys, all ex-athletes. Very funny because at that time, Romanians were not allowed to travel to UK. I got there using a fake Italian passport. And, you know, just put my picture on it.

Somebody did that for me. So this is how I passed from Holland to UK. In that house, we were, you know, 12th, 13 guys. We were four Italians, three French, two Hungarians. I don't know how many Belgian, Belgians, and that was if you would ask us to show you the passports. But in fact, we were all from Suchab, from Romania, we were knowing each other since we were kids, we grew up together, but it was a mix of all these nations in order to be able to live there in work. We had to use this fake documents. In this house, arrives.

a guy with his wife, recently married, was a brother of one of the guys there, of the big guys. And he was a small guy, his wife, you know, also small. They were so different in us. So, so, so different than all of us. And they lived there in a small room for a little while, they said, until they will find a better place to move on. The difference between us and this couple was huge. The way they were talking, the way they were, you know, everything they were doing was different. I never heard this little guy swearing once. And for me, it was like a challenge and for a few other guys, to behave in such way that at least one time we will hear this guy,

you know, taken out of his mouth a bad word, but it didn't happen. The thing about this guy that, you know, it was really, really unpleasant for us at that moment was that every Sunday he will knock every door in the house. and will invite each one of us to the church. He was going to a church. He was a Christian, Evangelic Christian, right? And he will do this for months, months, months, and every time we would say no, we would say no, we would say no.

I remember at some point he knocked on my door, and I just, I felt like just, you know, I was so angry with him. And I told him I'm a Christian because I believed I was a Christian. I had a religion as an orthodox Christian guy. I thought, you know, I thought I'm okay with God. Time to time, Christmas, Easter, go to the church, light a candle, you know, being present there, pay some money to the charity. I really thought in my heart that I was okay with God because time to time I was paying him.

Part of the things I was doing were going to charity. And that for me was like, you know, I'm paying God's protection over my life. And the things I do, he probably agrees with what I'm doing. So here it is, God, your share, you know, goes to this family that is in trouble, goes to that guy who needs an operation. So I was doing this kind of things. But this guy was there to tell me about something different, about, you know, a different perspective that I never heard about. And that was about the personal relationship with Jesus Christ, which for me sounded so funny because I thought, yeah. Well, no, you, it's just a.

amazing because many of us have stories like this. I have a similar story where I just was not interested. I said, you know, yeah, I got my religion. I grew up Greek Orthodox and I'm good. No thank you. That's your story. When we come back, we're going to hear the rest of the story. It's an amazing story, folks. Welcome back. My head got wet and midnight to great, but I've been down on my pen and knees talking to a man from Galilee. Welcome back. I'm talking to George Ignat from Romania. Amazing story. Okay, George, you are rejecting this born-again Christian guy knocking on your door every time. No thank you. No thank you. Get away. I'm good. What happens next? What happens next? He made me accepting going to the church with him one day. He told me that in that day, they will have an special guest. speaking. It was an ex-boxing champion, heavyweight boxing champion of Romania who come to Christ. And it was very interesting. He told me, you know, this guy found Christ in prison.

And very interesting, the same little guy who was inviting me to the church every Sunday, five months before that moment, he just gave me a book of this big heavyweight boxer guy who come to Christ. So I went through his testimony and I was impacted because, you know, being an athlete, I was an athlete, things were somehow connected. So now hearing this guy is coming there to speak, I wanted so much to hear. It was 2005. It was not like today. You type his name on YouTube and you can listen to him.

There was no such things back then. It was very difficult to search for people. So I went to church for the first time. I listened to this guy. I was very impressed. By the end of the service, this guy, I saw him, was looking all the time he was preaching. he was pointing his eyes on me. I was in the back of the church there, but he was looking at me.

So I just, at the end of the service, I just wanted, I felt like running away. But this guy was a big tall guy, you know, three, four steps. He grabbed my shoulder and he was like, young man, I want to talk to you. And he asked me where I'm from, what's my name? This big boxer guy, right? By this time, Vlad, the little guy came and just said, did this to him and said, brother Vasili, you know, like George, we have another 12 at home. If you can come tonight and put it on the side of schedule and come and just preach the gospel to those guys,

Sunday night is the only night they are not working from Monday to Saturday. They are on the streets of London, all nights on clubs and working and this. Now they are all home. So long story short, this guy came to our house. I got to get all the guys together. We went around him on chairs, you know, big muscular guys. He was a big guy too, but later on he told me, man, you got me scared. You're all so big, so tough, scars, tattoos, everything. So we listen to this guy, to this boxer guy, to this heavyweight boxing champion, Eric. With the Bible in his hands, he opened up the Bible.

And for the first time in my life, I heard somebody speaking directly from the Bible to me. And he spoke to us about very serious. serious things like life and dead, like hell and heaven, like the afterlife and what's going on with our soul after we die, very serious things that before that I only knew about them as there were stories, fair tales. But this guy managed to put them in such a serious light that made me wonder. And the first time in my life at that night, I had this question in my heart and in my mind. And the question was if tomorrow or tonight I'm going to die, where is my soul going to? Very, very strong question here, right? That happened then, that guy left.

We went back to our things. A couple of, some time later, I had to run from UK being followed by the police on one side and about some bad guys who told, you know, who, who, who transmitted me through someone that, you know, if they find me, they would shoot me down. And, you know, the businesses didn't went very, very, very well with these people. So I was pushed, forced by, you know, all sides to leave UK. I left UK at that time. I was already married.

And our first son, David, was just a few months old. So I want to protect them. I took them away. We moved back to Romania. Just keeping in my mind that it's just a short period of time and I wanted to go back. I'm going to hit pause. We're going to hit pause, folks. We have a lot more with George Ignat from Romania.

The story's just getting going. Stick around. We'll be right back.