schedule after he cancelled a public rally because of exhaustion, a senior organizer told BosNewsLife.
Attila Fabian, who accompanied the preacher as president of the Evangelical Pentecostal Fellowship in Hungary, said the 72-year old evangelist and world famous author boarded a plane bound for New York, where he lives and leads the Times Square Church with 8,000 members representing more than 100 nationalities.
Traveling with David Wilkerson was his son Gary, who had told thousands of Hungarians the night before that his father "just about collapsed" after he walked from the site of the stage, hours before his scheduled public rally.
"(My father) was so weary and exhausted (as) he had gotten sick in the last couple of days. And back at the hotel he could barely walk," he said late Saturday, October 4.
"WEAK HEART"
Fabian told ANS that Wilkerson was also suffering of "a weak heart," although the official added the preacher did not had a heart attack in Hungary. He stressed the health problems emerged following a frantic four-week tour that included crusades and pastoral conferences in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Belarus and Hungary.
"But he said he will no longer do these four week tours, it’s just to much for him," Fabian explained. "However this does not mean he will stop working. He said he will go on as long as he is alive," he added.
Despite the set-back, hundreds of Hungarians, including drugs addicts and alcoholics, were believed to have accepted Christ as personal Lord and Savior during Wilkerson’s last public appearance Friday and his son’s rally on Saturday.
ELDERLY PASTORS
David and Gary Wilkerson also encouraged pastors of all denominations to renew their faith in Christ and accept the challenges of Hungary’s post-Communist society during a three-day pastoral conference that preceded the public events.
They had a similar message to thousands of pastors in other former Soviet satellite states they visited, including Belarus, where the churches are experiencing prosecution.
"In Minsk…there was a prophetic word from my father that there was a statue of (former Soviet Union leader) Lenin on what was known as Independence Square," Gary Wilkerson told ANS, before leaving for New York.
LENIN "OUT"
"The president of that nation changed it back to Lenin Square. My father got up said: "this is a word from the Lord that in the near future a crane will come and take that statue out. The regime will fall down, and there will be complete freedom for Belarus, hundreds of churches will be starting (revival) and there will be a great move of God."
Gary Wilkerson recalled how "up to that moment it was very quit in the building, because they are kind of reserved people. But after (my father) said that people shouted and thanked the Lord. It was like a breakthrough and a powerful moment."
But he and his father also warned Christians in former Communist nations to stay away from secularization. David Wilkerson has expressed concern that several countries are entering a European Union that will have a constitution "without the name of God."
Only a handful of current and future members are reportedly prepared to fight for Christian values in the constitution of a Europe where many traditional churches are increasingly losing members.
