Linda Dillow: Intimate Issues Conference in Hungary

What makes it beautiful?
What makes it good?

For a whole year we were planning preparing and praying for a big conference for women. Similar plans were made in Poland, too. Due to a mistake the Polish and Hungarian conferences were scheduled for the same time. The only way to solve the conflict was to start the Polish event on Friday, and the Hungarian on Saturday. So the speakers started in Poland, and then one after another travelled to Debrecen.

How wonderful it was to see the huge crowd of women at the entrance to the stadium on Saturday morning! And it made us all the more sad that half of the computers broke down and therefore the women were only allowed into the hall very slowly. We knew that many guests thought of giving up and going home. I begged the head organizer to let the women come in without registering, and that during the break we would catch up on the registration. He said that the security regulations of the stadium would not allow this. We lived through some rather difficult minutes there inside. We could only pray that God would give perseverance to those waiting outside, and help the administrators to work quickly. That was Satan's first attack of the weekend, but the Lord was victorious!

When the conference finally started and I heard the singing of a few thousand women: "Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father....", I broke into tears. I knew that everyone had gotten in and that there were over 5500 of us. It was amazing to see so many women together. There were guests from Ireland, Germany, England, Austria, and close to 600 Hungarian women from Romania, Ukraine, Serbia, and Slovakia. During the two days over 6000 women registered. It was a special joy for me to see the significant participation by Roma women. In addition to the traditional denominations there were women from more than 40 so-called "small" churches, and almost 1000 who do not belong to any denomination. The majority of the participants were under 35 years of age. I had prayed for 1000 girls to come, and I know that there were at least that many.

Becky Harling gave the first presentation, which was followed by the lunch break. Then Linda Dillow arrived traveling by car for more than 7 hours. She spoke all day Friday in Poland, prayed for the women there until late at night, and then (causing much sadness among the Polish women), she left them and started for Debrecen. We were so relieved to see her, knowing that so much could have gone wrong on that long journey. She gave four sessions one after the other. Her dynamic teaching, full of illustrations and examples, was familiar to many of us and we were so happy to hear God's message through our beloved speaker. Meanwhile, I found out that Linda had had knee surgery just a few weeks earlier. She showed no trace of that surgery, nor did she show any tiredness. Already Saturday afternoon we were aware that the Lord was among us and speaking to us.

I am sure that, like me, many of the participants had a hard time sleeping that night. My husband and I woke to a phone call from Miskolc: "The guests from Poland haven't arrived, among them Lorriane, the main speaker for Sunday...." What happened? Where could they be? - the questions raced through us. What do we do now? A few minutes later the comforting news arrived: "They're here, they just got off on the other side of the train."

In my excitement I had forgotten that the night before they asked me to open the Sunday session. Just minutes before it started I cried out to the Lord and asked him to give me the right scripture. He gave the following: The next day John saw Jesus walking towards him, and he said "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!" (John 1:29). I was completely filled with the desire for every participant to see Jesus, the Lamb of God-not the speakers and the singers, but Him, the only one who came to give a solution to all our problems.

Lorraine Pintus was unknown to us, but I think I am right in saying that already during her first teaching we all came to love her. Her analogy of the flower garden was very practical-we have to pull out the weeds that Satan has planted and in their place receive lovely flower seeds from Christ.

After this followed the high point of the entire conference. Lorraine talked about the sinful woman who went into Simon's house in order to meet Jesus. She painted a stirring picture for us of Mary Magdalene's expression of deep repentance, cleansing, gratitude, and worship. Then the speaker opened her heart to us and honestly shared with us the horrors she lived through when she knew the truth, but didn't live according to it. Desire and the temptation of sin were stronger than her commitment to Christ. And this had painful consequences. Later she told me that when she talks about this with hestitating words, she once again experiences standing outside the operating room, ready to go in to have them perform an abortion, to kill her child. After confessing her own sin, she called the participants to repentance and to turn to Christ. Holy, unforgettable minutes followed. Some women came forward, many hundreds kneeled in their places, others stood to pray. I doubt that there was a single dry eye in the Fýnix stadium. It was incredible to see that in spite of such a large crowd, Christ still deals with us personally.

As I came down from the stage with Lorraine, I was seized by uncontrollable weeping. As if I were burdened with part of the sins of my nation-all the faithlessness, impurity, divorce, and abortion. I cried and cried before our Holy God. In that moment Satan also spoke: "Stop it, don't cry! Everyone is going to think that you are a horrible sinner and imagine the sins you must have committed if you are so overcome by weeping." But then I thought again of the Lamb of God, who, though completely sinless, took upon himself the sins of the whole world and died as if he had committed all of them. If he were capable of doing that for me, for my nation, for the entire world, then I don't care what they think about me-I will let the horrible flood of sin that my people have committed hurt me, burn me, oppress me.

The next day, Monday, the Deri Museum in Debrecen was closed, but they opened it for our guests and those accompanying them. We were glued to the floor as we stood there in the huge hall and looked at Mihaly Munkacsy's Trilogy (Jesus before Pilate, Ecce Homo, and Calvary). It was staggering to see the Lamb of God in the painting, as they accused the Holy One, the Truth. What price God paid to forgive us, to wipe away all unfaithfulness, impurity, and murder!

Ever since then the letters and calls have been arriving from Romania, Ukraine, Slovakia, and all across the country. They tell of miracles: of cleansing, of freedom from bondage, of being set right, of never-before-experienced freedom, of joy.

Blessed be the name of the Lord!

Ildiko Kovacs, Hungary

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