Dr. WAYNE
BARBER
God is good. All the time. Why? Because that’s His nature.
Although not a traditional missionary, the missions ministry of WP was indelibly marked by him. In 1987 he made his first trip to Romania with WP missionaries Costel & Mia Oglice. The goal was to equip persecuted pastors faithfully serving the Lord under communism. Not only did God work through Wayne, but He was also doing a deep work in Wayne.
As Wayne would return from these trips to Romania & Eastern Europe personal stories & illustrations would show up in his sermons &the church’s heart for missions began to grow just as his did. He shared 1 story of being invited to speak in a Romanian village where there were no believers. Over 100 people packed into the local communist hall for a program & he shared the gospel through a translator. At the end he asked them to raise their hands if they wanted to receive Christ. Virtually every hand shot up. He tried to talk them out of it, not sure if they understood, but after 3 attempts he concluded they truly were giving their lives to Christ. Always the focus remained on equipping nationals with the Christ-life message, received ministry & the centrality of the Word of God.
With the fall of communism the work in Romania expanded greatly in this new era of religious freedom. [Barber 4] Wayne & the Oglices presented Inductive Study Bibles to members of the Romanian Parliament in the very room where years before the communist edict had been signed to confiscate all Bibles and convert them to toilet paper.
You may not know it but the Following God Bible Study Series began out of our teaching at these European pastor conferences & the first studies were published in Romanian before they ever appeared in English.
Seeing God work in pastor hearts all over Romania, Wayne would replicate this idea all over Europe into Asia, Australia and Africa as well. Always his heart was especially for the national pastors.
Wayne was instrumental in the vision for the Precept Training Center in Surduc, & it was built largely by teams and funds from WP with significant help from Greg Bowman & Nabco Electric &Roger Dameron & Dameron Plumbing. Thousands of pastors &believers are equipped in God’s Word there every year
