THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 4, 1996 TAG: 9607040545
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY IDA KAY JORDAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: 65 lines
Religious freedom is a very real thing for Cornel Potra, the 31-year-old pastor of Blessed Hope Christian Fellowship.
``Americans should not take it for granted,'' Potra said. ``Freedom is something to fight for every day.''
Potra, born in Communist Romania to Christian parents, struggled for years to reach the United States. He spent years in prison and was declared a traitor before finally succeeding on his third escape try with the help of missionary friends. That was 1988.
The last dramatic effort that got him here could have cost him his life. His escape will be re-enacted today on CBN's ``700 Club'' with Potra playing himself.
``I'm talking about freedom,'' he said. ``It's a good Independence Day story.''
Potra's church in Portsmouth is a good story too.
In November, a Pentecostal Holiness minister told him of the small Pentecostal church in Highland Biltmore near Fairwood Homes.
``It was run down with only two or three people left in the church,'' Potra said. ``They said it would never grow again.''
Potra took the challenge. Last November he started preaching on Sunday to a few people. Now about 40 people attend regularly.
``Things are doing better,'' he said. ``We have seen many people saved and delivered since we started.''
Potra said the church has grown ``by word of mouth.''
``We are preaching truth and people are hungry to hear the word of God,'' he said. Potra claims to have saved people with drug and alcohol problems who happened into the church. He said his church is open to people of all races, whatever their faith.
His goals extend quite beyond his local church, though.
After studying six years at Homes Bible College and Erskine College in Greenville, S.C., he came to Hampton Roads last August, seeking a degree in law and public policy to start ``a watchdog organization for religious and human rights in Eastern Europe.''
Potra said he was persecuted from grade school until he finally escaped in 1988. Denied college because of his Christian commitment, he was caught trying to escape the first time when he was only 16. He went to jail and his parents paid a high fine to get him out, he said.
Again he tried and again he was captured and thrown in jail. On the third attempt, he got help from some Pentecostal missionaries.
One of them was Rose Gentilini, a Portsmouth native now stationed in Cologne, Germany, by the Pentecostal church. Gentilini, home on furlough, attended Potra's service last Sunday.
Potra became a U.S. citizen in 1992. His wife, Kristina, who came to this country with her family, was naturalized in 1989. The two have been back to Romania on mission trips several times since the Communist regime ended.
``Now in Romania the churches are growing,'' he said. ``There is more religious freedom but there still are violations. The leaders, ex-Communists, are still in power.''
Potra and his wife live in Greenbrier with their two children, Charissa Ruth, 5, and Abraham Justin, 9 months. ILLUSTRATION: IDA KAY JORDAN photo
Cornel Potra and his wife, Kristina, holding their son, Abraham,
have often returned to their native Romania on mission trips. They
stand before Potra's Blessed Hope Christian Fellowship church in
Portsmouth. by CNB