Iris After Hours - Episode 12 - Georgian Banov

welcome to iris after hours casual conversations with inspirational speakers off the clock hi guys welcome back to iris after hours here i am on my lonesome again crystalline is still in china following h a baker's footsteps with their dad roland so we're going to see some of that footage later on but today i have an amazing friend of iris with us he is a fantastic musician an amazing preacher and exposure of the word of god in the heart of god he was also a writer and a potentially filmmaker he is a celebrator full of the joy full of the spirit of god it's one of my papas in the spirit george and benoff how are you georgia oh great never forget when we met in pemba i know and sarah were the leaders of the school yeah and we just boom it was massive it was amazing totally i felt like i found my papa i know there was a real real click and the atmosphere was just just shocking just open heaven and you guys were amazing and then we hung out in restaurants and eating and fellowshipping and hey are you moved here and now you're doing this amazing art and your leader for that yes i'm excited i'm proud of you oh thanks papa yeah oh really and how are you going oh my gosh oh my gosh just traveling the world you are doing so many things you are uh a real encouragement to our generation george you and winnie wow just and you your ministry global celebration says it all global celebration says it all like let's rejoice yeah you know what is it philippians four four one i mean rejoicing the lord again i say rejoice rejoice wow and the the idea for the global celebration came when when we started a ministry uh which about 1985 is when we started oh my gosh before they were part of another mystery where the music machine came and bullfrost and butterflies yeah then what are these albums these are some of the best-selling kids worship about kids what are they called the music machine music machine and the bullfrogs and butterflies and butterflies yeah that was the top two best-selling for children to this day they were in the 70s and i still get royalties not a lot but you know they're still unbeatable hang on a bit before we launch into this you were friends with keith green yes we lived in the same area with uh keith green with david wilkerson leonard ravenhill second chapter of acts he was teaching us twice a week we were raising his feet oh my god leonard the revival it's the passion for holiness came from them from him and his wife i mean they're like sweet saints and oh my gosh till this day he just rocks the world you know whoa oh yeah it was a whole community of you know texas in texas like east texas and new dallas not far he he actually came later and we were already uh y one was there dave wilkerson was first and he started pulling you know that was amazing is this before david wilson went to new york to start before after that he moved to new york started that so that 75 to to about 81 or two how long before this did you get saved i would just save i would just save just a year prior to that oh my god yeah i would say 74. here in california here in california yeah uh so you go along north of here in ohio california is where i get the first come on witness yeah or some ex drug addicts you know just 500 a day junkies you know it's safe to miraculously transmission come on that moment you know wow and so they just they released them the court released them from the jails into just like a halfway house and they were living there just basically witnessing to people every night it was like the jesus revival the jesus people late 60s early 70s wow and what were you doing in ohio california i was headed for hollywood actually are you coming from the north yeah because uh uh you know that's what the studios are and i was like and you're a musician musician i was part of rock and roll scene in bulgaria me and three boys first rock band in bulgaria yeah know why yeah first rock band we were never in any we weren't any good but there was no way to prove it there was nothing to compare it was crazy they put us on national television there's one channel so overnight we're the number one band that's why you are my spiritual father because you were a rock star oh right i want to be a rock star holy calling rockstar for jesus and eventually the economy shut us down coming because bulgaria was on the communism yeah and they they they realized that they made a mistake because like we're stirring like a cultural revolution yeah and then that's a western influence so they shut us down publicly yes because there's freedom of speech there's freedom of society and everything with rock music because you've seen what you feel is no one's going to tell you what to do as a rock with rock music or a rock star and they it's a rebellion basically and they realize how they'll influence rock music in the western world and this is we don't want this so what year is this we're talking about georgia we're talking 65 is a debut 65. so you like the beatles yeah you are like yeah yeah yeah we've got to this bulgarian beetles in the studio with us this morning yeah no exaggeration to this day if i go in bulgaria when i go i can make news actually you know i can go to the president anyone who would know me that generation didn't know who i am because of the we were the beginning you know so the young today the leaders of bulgaria are back then are like of course yeah yeah of course oh my gosh that is amazing amazing have you gone back and people recognize yeah yeah and i do big interviews tv shows radio shows my friends owned uh like the media basically so in bulgaria i use it for the lord i mean front page unedited testimony as i tell like it is that man jesus is real it's like they they don't believe it but they trust me you know so they out of honor they they would they would do full interviews and oh my god yeah that's incredible georgian it's amazing i just witnessed but so you were born in bulgaria yeah born and raised like 24 and how did you get how did you get to america from that i escaped iron curtain no way yeah oh my gosh what year uh the end of 72. so you were born under the iron curtain or did it come when you were a kid no no no uh let me see the it was 48. i was born my mother was free you know mom and dad were in a free country but then communists came yes during the war 16 you know 44. yeah communist as hitler was being defeated communists took over poland they annexed yeah most of the eastern ireland yeah then bulgaria to look to look after right yeah yeah so they're occupied romanian bulgaria every everywhere hitler was there you're bordering countries in romania romania was there poland poland serbia that's what bulgaria is in the middle of oh yeah bulgaria grab your below romania between greece and turkey and romania that's bulgaria and so we all became occupied by the by the russians by the communists and so my mom did you have memories of that or no no i was not born but then then 44 and now i'm bored of 48. so uh-huh okay so my mom there lost freedom and lost their properties anybody if he were rich if he had anything he probably they all get killed because they don't like rich people to the communists the bourgeoisie yeah they're like the the capitalists are the bad guys they're the problem right so they killed all the capitalists i mean even if you had glasses that would shoot you just because you're smart because only a few people can read with glasses was a big deal so it means you're smart you know rich people oh my god kill them all and so i grew up in a very hush hush nobody tells anything about a past because they don't secret police well they want because kids talk you know so our parents didn't tell us nothing about what we are because if they said we came from they confiscated everything both sides are wealthy like my grand my father was like a banker on my mom's side it was the owner of the large factory for refining some sunflower seed oil very wealthy you know millionaires and and uh good thing they were good with their people and and during the courts you know they stood those workers for them stood they defended them they were nice to us they were like some of them were communists but undercover and so my grandpa was very nice to them fair to the workers so they defended him and spared his life otherwise they would kill him isn't that funny because that's what the scriptures say look after your workers don't muzzle the ox and that's that so if you do your business right doesn't matter what regime you're under you'll be looked after if you follow god's way that's exactly what wow when you're fair to workers that's god's wisdom i don't know i feel that for the world at the moment with just so much production of stuff we buy in the west done in really poor countries because it's cheap labor i'm just hoping that people are and big businesses whoever's making these products uh being fair to their workers because i know some workers leave their family for months or years to work and don't see their families our wives for months and years on end because they are working in factories to create products for our western world sorry i'm rubbing trailers no no and then child slavery is in the same category no we need to stop that yeah justice but anyways the justice is an important issue and that's because dad was grandpa was just with the workers can you ever get memories of your grandfather yes yes i have memories very very very little he didn't talk much he was very very discouraged i mean he was like taking everything oh yeah his whole wife just took all his possession took everything and made him feel like he's the worst guys you know so he was very quiet broken down he was a broken down man broken down his prize anything he was he's just like he never talked to me about anything that he was so i found out later on my grandma survived the communism when the communism fell uh my grandma was going science and now she was in the 90s and uh this was 1990 1990 when the comedy has failed it yes 99 yeah when the war came down berlin while everything came down yeah the soviet union just made it back to russia yeah and so i haven't been in my country since since the 70s since we escaped you know so i i never thought well we're going to see him yeah because i didn't think communism was ever going to go it's like who would talk the cold war like who would thought that this would end they were so solid and so exactly i mean i was a kid and so i knew about the soviet union you know during the i remember watching the olympic games in 1980 in moscow and just thinking yeah it's behind the iron curtain yeah and i never thought it would come down when i heard the berlin wall came down i was in shock i thought that wouldn't it's like something you think would never happen we were always shocked 40 years and boom they're gone like nebuchadnezzar boom one day he's gone he's an animal and then he's you know only god just moves so anyways grandma i didn't think i ever gonna see her or she's she's getting older she's gonna sit out she's she couldn't hear anymore i'm talking on the phone she can't hear me so i'm going well you know that's it and then comedy isn't false and i go back and grandma they told her that uh if if you could prove what you own like factories or land or i mean she had hundreds of acres they owned it says if we can prove it then we restore everything back all of a sudden my grandma's mind comes together completely she her memory comes her earrings are open and she she digs into these old archives she found all the papers of what we own grandpa's a multi-million she owns and she proved in all the lands back and my grandma lived for another season of six or eight years she didn't die out of anything other than she felt something it wasn't her brain was completely restored it's the dignity gosh yeah it was just stolen then restored restored yeah she came to life she was just amazing that's how i had so she would tell me stories that i did that i never heard and she told me about what grandpa was and what they were and how good they were to people and how they got protected so your first time back was 2099 99 first batch straight back back first time i'm back after 16 years of being an immigrant you know because if you go back you get a like a sentence of course because you escape believers says yeah you meant to go to prison there's a prison sentence so i but listen tell me listen i've got to ask how did you escape oh i was smuggled by the polish black market the poli what is the the polish black markets is very good uh they would go across they would buy jeans and different things like that and then come back and sell them so how do you get western products less than products and some things were really high like you buy jeans for five dollars sell for 50 you know over you know there's a to have a jeans levi's or something it's like american jeans oh my gosh you you sell everything just to get one pair especially a rock star you need a pair of jeans yeah you gotta have a pair so so the polish were very good and uh somehow it's a long story but we ended up with this polish black marketer who who knew his routes and so so in order to if you if we tell him that we want to escape he'll never take us because because exporting cargo like a human it's a big big problem you get killed yeah just for genes is one thing yeah crime or whatever but for you know smuggling people is political effects like you you've done so he would never done it so we came up with a plot um that we we had enough money to show him that we we could new market to do business with him so we decided to yeah so he tricked him into thinking we're investors so he smuggled us to buy uh actually he was going to build a discotheque in warsaw the whole thing was just we did it and there wasn't he just felt you fabricated fabricated story a whole plan yeah you were just wanting to escape you did this whole business yeah proposal totally it was like it was like very very you want a friend me and my guitar player from the back yeah the rock band and so what happened was i had this weird like what did you think about your mom and dad you knew you weren't going to see him again no i i just did you say goodbye you probably can't tell them no no no what were you thinking the night before you left oh it was i knew they'll never see this place again that was horrible it's like like petrified but i didn't want to get him involved like of course she couldn't write they knew and they they had to betray me had to report to the police and if they you know so erected us and they knew they did not know them they were separate divorce for all my life but there was less they didn't know anyway so he went in poland and stuck in warsaw and i noticed the guy i think i know let me tell you so what happened you get to this market i want to i want to hear the details yeah i'm getting to this market black market you get across the world how did you get we noticed this guy with a huge watch you know and i made a remark to my friend about this guy in the street look at this watch and it was like a large one with a chain and so oh yeah and then we we move on and and then we sit down at this as a coffee shop to get some to eat and he sits he comes follows us and sits on a table and we're freaking out because he speaks bulgarian he heard us in bulgarian so he's a bulgarian student in warsaw study but in order to make living he smuggles he he's part of the black market he's very polish black market right because he found a cheap easy way to make money and he's very good at that he knew how to sneak through iron curtain uh and one point where and i have no idea how he he did that but he he would be successful he was successful and so so we freaking now because he's sitting and says what are you guys doing i heard you talk about my watch i'm bulgarian too what are you doing and we go we're freaking out because like in our minds like oh these secret police secret police that's exactly what we thought you know we had only three days to make the whole plot happen and we was did you have any trouble getting from bulgaria to warsaw uh what happened was we were on a contract with a german band so we're playing in the bars in berlin east berlin yes of course that was all the way out to the thing yes but in berlin the escape is suicidal because absolutely yeah i don't know yeah uh several sections on the wall dangerous you know they even shoot you without warning but then there's other sections like in like a hungary they will give a warning shot and then we'll shoot you if you keep running but the only place where they don't shoot is uh they just try to catch you in in serbia the serbian border or mohammed like the tito at the time he was not 100 percent submitted so he said don't kill people they're running try to catch them but you know if they run they run you know so he's the only one that rebelled against the rule the communist country yeah what was his name tito tito tito was the old yeah yugoslavian first leader you know he was kind of independent right communist but independent he kept his sovereignty anyway so we found that that was a very important element to know of information that if you can get to serbia that's your chance to escape without being shot if you can run you know just run across so we said oh we'll go there and somehow we didn't manage to get there and we got stuck in poland and a roundabout way and that's in poland is where we found this guy over the watch yeah so we're basically stuck watching the street talking what are we gonna do we can't they wouldn't even let us go down you know the the boris was shut and it was a freak thing you know so but this guy says so what do you guys do and it says well you know we're you know who we are i'm rock star you know with the civil rights he's like yes i know you're there so it says well we have some uh we're doing some gig in berlin and we just came over to have some fun you know just got a couple days off and we're making all that up you know we're like stepping underneath our toes you know when i would want to talk i when he's going anywhere that i think he's wrong i step in his thoughts so really actually as i go that then he steps in my toe he takes the conversation it was like that well like because we are just frightened because you don't know this of course you could be how can anybody you think like he you know and he goes oh okay well having fun in warsaw that's no fun it's just not very good of a city so if you want to have fun go to vienna have fun you know vienna of course but behind iron curtain how do you go there to have fun and you go oh easy i do this for a living he says what do you mean do it they say smuggle stuff jeans me you know see these tapes lps all kind of stuff that is marketable i just make that i'm a student i'm organized i mean wow well you know it's boy you're talking something damn dangerous let's just and then and that's just and you go to the bathroom and my friend goes to the bathroom after so we can talk in the bathroom he says what if he's real like we can he can make a deal for us he can get us across what if he's not so he said we have to come up with an alibi that will go there not just to have fun because that means you're going to escape like yeah yeah yeah but if we have an alibi a business so we can bring a business here so that way the motive is to go get the stuff and come and make yeah he thinks you're coming back here intentions to come back with this like six minutes go to the bathroom five four minutes think fast fast on your toes literally on your toes yeah and we come back and we go you know what let's just not forget about this vienna stuff it's just dangerous to think maybe it's good for you because you know how to do that but we're not we're a musician with all this smuggling stuff it's just too dangerous too scary let's just let's just go have fun we have lots of money let's just go have fun show us the best bars clubs girls anything we just want to have that together you know yeah so he he goes out from club to club to drinking and girls and this and that and then around midnight one o'clock he says would only think play only thing open right now is it this disc attack well good let's get we like discontent let's go to the discontext so it's been doing discontext and it's like okay this is nothing nothing big and nothing great so the idea hit us well there was noise and stuff he says what if we propose to him to make a discotheque which we could just i'll do this this could take to the one easy because we know how to do sound it was a sound wasn't even very good everything was like not very not very good so we can do so much better and make big money if if this place is packed ours is going to be twice packed you know what i'm saying so so uh so he says listen we have this idea is this the best experience that is the best that says oh my gosh we can make money here we can make something so much better that it could you know and and he goes i says i could this is because you speak polish you can be the dj and talk with the musicians you can play live music and then mix it with the cds and stuff and it's just going to be awesome he goes i know you guys are amazing and i said the only thing we need is like 45s you know those are the little back ends yes the little records yeah now they use the the lp's the 33 and a half you know mixed yeah house but back then it was the little 45s would go from one to another but the 45s are in vienna that's where you buy them oh so we go now your thought about going to vienna makes sense to us because we want to buy these things and bring them here that's worthwhile risking because for us it's too much risk to just to go have fun ah she was smart oh my god that was the flight he goes i like it he says he says do you think he had that much money look at this and i'm zipping my boots i have like a big boot long full of money like we sold everything we own bulgarian cash yeah no no u.s dollars and and east german cash also goes to vienna because the the tourism yeah so uh those currencies he goes man with that money we can make big deal we can buy all the seat and we can rent the place and let's do it that morning four o'clock after this could take he goes to his yeah we met him around five o'clock in the afternoon by my by three in the morning we got the plot going 11 hours left 11 hours later and he goes and wakes his wife up in in his little apartment she's polish she says i have to get her to buy us the tickets from warsaw to budapest from budapest then we'll wait until the night trains and we'll get the nine trains all the way to serbian border and then we're gonna do another trick being there because this is my round she's the only one can buy tickets to polish she can buy tickets like we couldn't so we need to have her yes even for him you know she gets her to get his ticket yep for some reason so we go okay so we're waiting just wait here in my living room until she she wakes up so he's waking her up and wearing his little room there and we open one of the drawers and and he he has a picture of he and his father and mother and his father is like a high and like a general in uh the bulgarian army bulgarian that means communist like highly communist ended up he was a secret police he was a guardian he was in charge of the security for embassies that that was his rank oh my gosh oh my gosh what we did this is so you forget this he's a cop he he's he's he's like he's occasionally he's oh no so we're just frightened but there's no no turning back now no but at least you've sort of got it we're sorry yeah the story is not no no we were not trying we told them here's the money we wanted to make business in here yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah so but we were like shaken by that because like we thought we suspected but now you know for sure he's his father is this big rank yes he's a communist kid so he comes out okay guys ready to go my wife is ready we go to she'll buy the thing and so we're like okay we're going so we're going to the airport she bought the tickets she got the ticket we get the plane we go to budapest like you said and we sit all day until the late night he says now get the midnight trains because the midnight trains you can pretend you're sleeping and you're gonna you'll even come across you know because the serbs also can be suspicious why why are you going to yeah yeah serbia is out of the way you know we can only go to bulgaria because this is a little funny like that he says this this how it goes so we follow his rules we're laying down he's leaving the guys comes you know gets your tickets and looks the passport this is night and it's just didn't work he didn't bother us so then we go to the to the to the border with serbia in vienna it's like we're shaking he says okay now let's get off the train because if we get in the train here they're gonna arrest us because this is not good so we're taking a small train to another section of the iron curtain and we got off and a little train station and he says now from here we have to take a taxi to go another fire to a country road oh okay and so so he completely goes off of these official places and he goes to a small checkpoint where there's only one soldier and he did the talking he saw the past we said don't say a word i'll do the whole thing you know so he's and we're like in the back of the sea the guy just did we turn to the taxi we go oh my gosh we're set up he's taking us in oh my gosh the whole time yeah we're just going but he kept assuring us now if we stay here we're going to get arrested so you got to go to small checkpoints and then we're going to rent a taxi that's how i do it trust me so he's like oh my god so we're like that leaf and the soldiers looking at them and i don't know what they had money put in there i have no idea what you didn't have anything with you you didn't have a suitcase you no i had a little bag that's a little bit like that's it your whole life in the backpack oh yeah the whole life and within the back of the seat trembling but we're trying to stay she says stay cool don't say a word no no no nothing and and finally girl goes go oh my god crossing the iron curtain we were actually did he give him money i could not figure out what he did because he he made it away the way he pulled his official room as a he has because his grandfather was a father was a huge kgb yeah so maybe he did that or he had put money into the passport because when he when he came in the past when the guy looked at and said i i i was like looking down i was like he said don't say a word i'll do the whole talking and eventually okay move and we went through that encouragement and this is all because you randomly saw a big watch what you didn't know the guy i know he recognized your voice so it was nothing you did in 2 million people's city you may have one guy that speaks bulgarian got a big watcher that knows the way out knows the way out what are the chances of that happening crazy oh my god totally crazy that is nice and so we're like oh my gosh we're crossing the iron curtain we're now across the iron curtain by the berry i don't know for people listening but i know because in my day as a kid i mean i was scared oh so be sure to come into my room you were scared we were on the other side we were in it i was i was scared that i'd have to say they come and say renounch your faith and i have to go no i believe in jesus and i'll let him shoot me i was i played through scenarios in my head that i'd have to give my life up and be shot by the soviets because they'd asked me to announce my faith but i knew in the bible from the stories i can't really ask my faith and i have to let them shoot me that's right in australia as a kid i know i know because the iron curtain was so real scary in australia in the country australia where i lived the iron curtain was this big thing oh my gosh so we cross and then we go into the austrian border and they're going what are you doing well well we're business people we just want to go in and oh so you leave that board then there's another border there's that is there no amazing the no man's land we're driving like at this point we can just stop the guy we run out and just run because we're across yes yeah but he says stay here and so we crossed and these guys did not want to let us in they want us to know what's what are you doing because you're not supposed to be doing this like ah so that was a more trouble there but oh my gosh you crossed iron curtain then it wasn't over you had no no no they i mean because they were suspicious because if we say we're turning ourselves in they go come on in because a political asylum is fine but we're not asking for a political assignment we pretend we're acting with that business story yes so he says so he started talking talking and and of course he is not a political asylum no we would have said it but he he he you would give his story you know and so we're going along with a guide you're locked into the life relaxing yeah and so finally we almost felt like no we're not here to do business we wouldn't yeah let us hear them please because we and they would have taken you like that because that's uh yeah silence okay oh my god but he went on and on so you know and but we were already excited and so finally we'd pull over and go inside a little coffee shop and let the cat the taxi off-page oh so the taxi driver took you all the way he took us all the way yeah taxi took us all the way and then we go and learn this and we tell him thank you thank you oh thank you for taking us we are not going back for no business we wanted to escape and we need but we couldn't tell you because we she go what says yes sorry we lied to you we made this whole story but we will not trust you and now we saw you in your apartment that your father was a communist yeah my father's but big deal says i i hate communism i love you guys and if you'd have told me the truth i've gotten my wife and we'd all escape together because i love the west but i was afraid to go along you know with you we can make living i can be a manager or something you're talented the guy was like really disappointed we couldn't trust you man yeah forgive us but there's no way for us to trust you you know like yeah he goes get it get it so anyway so we went in vienna we got the train to vienna we had a little bit of money we had to do that we gave him some money to make his business so it makes his trip worthwhile oh good so you gave him some yeah we did yeah we did we did took care of expenses hotels and everything so he was okay but that was the story you know oh and then so did you train yourself into turner southam to the officials and they accepted us and we went through the process of immigration and we would have gone to australia it hadn't been that far right the only embassies they approve of is american and australian by the way oh really i could have been australian but it was just a little farther you know america's a lot closer oh yeah heaps closer that's that's the whole reason otherwise because no european embassy wanted us the americans said how did you khaji yeah australia had a very big immigration plan at that stage yeah a lot of italians we had a lot of italians a lot of greeks yeah coming to australia at that stage yeah so when i got to america how did you what did you how you get here it's well we escaped you know we were smoking here really we like your kind come on in there they welcomed us freedom they love people who die you want to risk their life for freedom yes oh he just stood up says welcome to american voices like we like you we like you guys so what happened did you get on a ship to like new york or something or how did it work no we got in a one-way flight one way wow 150 dollars was a ticket that's all you had to pay one way we made some money yeah in some bars like in vienna yeah we did crazy stuff gosh i said you and your friend went together me my friend yeah and it was a really weird thing cause like we're playing this nightclub and um and this is uh one night there was some sort of a noise and guns and stabbing like the somebody like ran after one of the the the club guys and stabbed him with the knife right in front of me he was trying to dodge into the inside of the kitchen but he caught him and stabbed him three times and i'm looking down playing drums we're in the bar and all of a sudden some of the waiters are pulling their guns they're shooting you know it was a rough rough area and i just went underneath the drums i'm like because the guns are off you know the knife is guns and i'm on the new voice you're all like duck down and i'm underneath the drums and i'll go oh my gosh this is vienna uh and vienna is known for waltzes and peaceful you know strauss and all this romantic plays and i says if this is this is how ravian is what would new york be in america they'll be killing it everywhere i said oh my gosh what we're doing like the ship here came yeah i know gangster that's all we hear about america again oh yeah yeah and so i was freaking out you know and uh oh my gosh these stories is so uh and then one night uh the father of my friend somehow found because we wrote i wrote my girlfriend i'm in vienna you know and they said she revealed that that is escaping i mean and somehow she told my mom my mom told my friends and he shows up he's a truck driver international turkey so he rallied his vienna to see his son to talk him into coming back oh you're dead he's dead oh he's that friend oh and so dun dun dun you know and i open the door and i go mikku he's got a friend he got a guest and i'm moving because anger and explosion he's what are you doing you know and and uh this huge scandal between the father and the son you know oh my goodness we go to the start of music so he's waiting and and talking to us in the breaks you guys you boys are wrong you got to come back you don't know what you're doing and you're gonna wreck everything and you're losing your future no i mean he's trying to talk us into coming back and we go no no we made it for mine so so uh four o'clock we finished the gig and so he says okay i did my part to bring you back but you you refuse so i'm gonna go to the embassy now and i tell them what i did try to talk to the bulgarian embassy in vienna oh yes he says i have to clear my my case that i have done everything because otherwise you could be in trouble big trouble for partnering with yours exactly so five o'clock he's in the morning he's headed to the embassy and we're going to a little apartment the bar had a little apartment okay yeah exactly and so 8 a.m the door from the embassy bulgarian because they found out now where we are because they you know and we're like frightening our beds you know like we we don't say a peep for till noon you know we didn't move nothing and pretend you were there yeah so they knocked and knocked and eventually got quiet and so by noon we checked our asses they're gone so we ran out with everything we had we went to the gun shop and we bought it two pistols because vienna is neutral you could go either way you know it's not quite safe for they could put you in a car and take you out from the street oh right yeah it's a it's a very kind of yep oh yeah diplomatic cars nobody searched they could put you in the car and take you away wow so the bulgarians could have captured you like like this then now they know who we are and then where you are and where we are and we work at night by 4 a.m there's nobody in the street that can come and get it so we're in a very exposed right so we both bought a gun each and and and he so he had a gun johnny cash i went walking with the bible and the gun yeah and i had a siren and like a loud siren oh and and then and and uh he had like a spray and so she was so we armed both hands like in in walking like that because we were scared you know oh my god like that's crazy yeah and we tested the gun yeah this works okay so it worked like that and we were like frightened all the way until the day we left because we could have taken us oh my gosh so how long did you stay did you try and get out as soon as possible then or yeah the first chance we got the one yeah we got the ticket and boom one way to america you and your friend you have friends so you landed in new york and new york city and the number one song was killing me softly with this song building my life and it's like a great song prophetic you know everybody was singing this song and we are when new york city winner wow freedom yeah we just like anyways everything was so amazing i love that we got a job in florida somewhere and eventually i got saved later on a year later i was in hollywood yeah and did you happy i was going to so tell us about that experience you're coming down we're back to the beginning now back to ohio you're coming down from the north so that um why did you stop in ohio we ended that well because uh uh because uh you know we stopped to eat something okay and and the and the the the restaurant this uh we first my first witness was was actually in hollywood i was remember that movie uh the the exorcist yes okay so it is going to hollywood to this this uh to see this movie and and a freak and the christians were witnessing on a movie line say hey this is the demonic and you gotta get saved jesus can save you it's like they're very actively sharing uh about jesus but who pays attention you know like i don't even know what this guy i'm going to the movies but that witnessing about god and he'll save you from hell you know and so i'm just there's no help but then i go and see the exorcist movies i'm freaked out where are these guys like what were they talking about what the devil intended for i thought god turns for good totally and i was like and then i saw jesus christ superstar movie yeah oh yeah that shook me up because like when he when he when he was crucified when he got boom like that wow something happened to me i'm going what like what do i care there's some actor you know in the blood it's just paint you know it's like why am i feeling so weird you know and this wow something like this i was touching me you know through movies yeah you know come on you know it was so strong let me tell you it was so strong it was always a secular movie right it's not really christian just about jesus but still effects you know and it was so touched by the fact that i'm i'm breaking up at the site i says i cannot be crying here i have i mean i was really i was going to cry why am i crying this is an actor this is you know i'm a media guy i know this is just a story this is like a thing and so i stayed to see the movie second time just so i could get over the emotional i cannot be fallen apart wow so he wanted to watch it again yeah you wouldn't cry in that section yeah it's not the negative effect and when they go boom and he they stuck him and they were gonna cross you know i i broke out again again and i ran out of the movie and i'm going what is with you i'm saying stop this oh my god weakness and you act like a baby you can't do this you got to be strong man you can't be in a movie affect you it was not the movie it was the jesus story was god was speaking but the movie got used yes and so so fine anyway so i i'm like i'm between that movie and between x's i'm freaked out you know from this demonic stuff yes of course excellent and so uh la was expensive he couldn't even park the car without charging a lot of money so we went up north in ohio because it was more relaxed you know i think we picked up hitchcock it says over there there's a free parkings there's a like uh uh areas up in the mountain-ish area material hot springs and it's free you know you can park and stay you know so we basically went there to take some time to regroup because hollywood as is exciting was in your mind you go there so what you say success studios 65 7 73 73 70 oh yeah i was actually when i started grade one that's when i started grade one i started school in 1973 yeah 70. so so we're in 70 and we're in hollywood and vine the famous studios yeah whether i supposed to make connect and make living there and i'm walking in a boulevard on the street and i'm launching noticing the stars they're dirty they're not clean the city is filthy i mean the street yeah some of the stars have puked from the winos they've been like rolling i mean at late at night then the heron addison shooting in the corner prostitutes or walking and i'm going you know this is not worth dying for because i risked my life to get here exactly if you played a high price a high price it literally could have been killed yeah yeah people get shot at their currently crossing illegally oh yeah for your story how many stories were the people for not making it trying and 100 ending in tragedy and so i'm in this store it's like my dream is to come to a nice place i can make music and freedom and this is pits here i'm looking at this the street not beverly hills you know i mean i'm looking at the gutter yep where the real town is you know so the lord says okay so this is i mean it's like god knew he was even speaking to you through that he's speaking to the fact that he's going along with my dreams because you want to be uh a star you're like you wanna okay come all right is this where you want to be it's like he he allowed me to come all the way so that i can be disappointed in my own dream wow you know that's super important and right at this low point is these christians are witnessing ah so just left that yeah yeah jesus loves you he really does he died for you and i'm gone forget it what are you talking about you know leave me alone that kind of thing but then we're out of money i'm petrified by the this movie about exorcists you know and and uh you know the movie about jesus christ he hits you so i'm going i don't know what's going on he's setting you up he's setting me up he's baiting me everything is just coming through me grooming you yeah and kind of putting you in this place and so i'm leading now with two other guys you know a guitar player and there's another that we picked the guitar player from another one another one kind of split it but it's another guitar player and and also another young american so with three of us so we says boys we can't survive here this city is expensive we don't have hardly money to eat very few money and it's left so let's go up to this place where they say it's free so we parked let's think and got a little plastic tent so for a few days i just want to think because i i don't know what to do now i'm like my dreams are not happening this is not turning out what and so i don't what the freaking i'm going you are in a very vulnerable very vulnerable place i is engage with this city the way i see it the gutter of the city that i don't see the the grammy awards no i see the city where the guy right there from you go into the studio right there so this is the city the life on the street is telling me something so i'm going what am i gonna do you know i was hoping for something nice and beautiful and better you know and and i had it better in i mean it wasn't the communist otherwise it was beautiful like exactly better than this okay and so so so we're in the mountain we got this tent plastic tent all made up from just just to protect ourselves from night cold cold weather and and and during the day we come down for food and that's what these guys were sharing in the marketplace in ohio we were up at the ma and he come down and they're talking us and and and they offer food says come and eat with us you know and we have dinner tonight would you come and so we started eating and we ate and it was very good and uh and my my friends you know we left but then the next day i'm hungry again and i'm going i don't know i like to go ahead you guys go what are you doing with these guys you know because the american kid knew they're christians i didn't i i didn't know what was going on okay right you know so i i i was connected somehow and like it was the food but it was more than the food wow it was like the food and the spiritual things and the spiritual yeah because it was connected i mean they said you're talking they don't just give you food they cook they're chatting you know you're there their fellowship what kind you like okay you know oh you're vegetarian no problem i will do this would you like that and so they're really engaging with me they're custom making food for me you know like they're loving on me they're valuing me and i'm going wow i enjoyed all that friendship so i'm finding my my two friends are saying look are we going to do rock and roll and what kind of leader are you i just look i'm putting an allen pause i'm not sure about this and so they got frustrated with me i said you could just leave because i'm not going anywhere because and so they're distant they they left they went back whatever they went and so i'm a little alone i wanted to process everything without having to have guys hanging around with me because they did not like the those guys they were agitated you know because like george focus let's go to hollywood get let's get the job done yeah now go man i don't i don't something i don't like i got to give myself to something and i'm not sure that that is what i want to give myself to you know this kind of a right wow that's amazing i mean like nice if you remember david bowie had a cd the time in the 70s half man half animal it's like and i'm going this is weird man like you have to become an animal i mean to compete with the guy you got to do something more so i'm thinking weirdness i have to do in order to survive and to win yeah so i'm processing all that these guys just loving on me and i like these guys i don't believe in anything they're saying but they're so nice you know there's something and so they kept pulling me and finally my friends said okay we're done you're not a good leader and they got upset we're wasting our time we're running out of money i says go you go take take all the money you need to go home so i could give him enough money for gas to go home and i'm staying and i'm processing and after two months oh you stayed for two months i stayed for two months it's a free free place to stay and at night they give you free food so i'm just staying and i'm eating their food i'm i'm running out of money completely but i'm good i'm like i'm saying okay i have only enough thing money to go to hollywood so tomorrow i'm going back to her because i really don't connect with anything they're saying i just use them i eat their food and that's nice and i appreciate the niceness but i have to make something for my life yeah so here's what i'm gonna do tomorrow i'm going to hollywood and i'm going to fight and be an animal whatever i have to do and make it yep but today i'll give it one chance out of respect because they've done so many nice things for me they loved on me they were kind they were friendly at you know and treated me like prince you know and i'm an immigrant they can't get nothing out of me i just there there's no more why there's no agenda really why are you doing this i'm poor immigrant i don't i'm a nobody it's like what do you get out of me don't we not we love you and jesus loves you and and they realize i'm not believing anything so they don't preach at me they're just kind of loving on me playing music together and this and that so finally says okay out of respect to them i'll go back to the mountain there where stay and i'll just i don't even know what to do but i'll do something i'll say something so it's stupid but do it so you know in your mind you you there's nothing else but you got to go to hollywood this is it i'm just on that crossroad so i'm going back to the mountains d-day d-day and it's around noon and i'm going dan what am i doing what do i say you know there's no god so why are you even trying you know that the enemy tells you you're stupid yeah what are you doing when you say something down there i don't know i'm just going along the mountain it says i heard somebody go in the mountain and think it's i'm going all right you're on the mountain don't know what to say and then a thought comes to my mind to say god do exist and i'm going of course he doesn't so go ahead say it and that's that's a good thought say it right now and you're gonna see it be over with yup and i say god do exist sooner that i said god exists this this like a blanket like a quilt i i can't even tell you like like like a cover comes on me around and even the acoustics change just like you know when you when you get on that pillow or under blanket they'll be different the techniques yeah everything was changed so i cannot see it but i could feel this like this this this this blanket or something you know what is this and i'm beginning to talk to to this thing you know and before you know it gets thicker closer to me his presence basically but i couldn't say it i would say this this quilt is coming around me this this canopy like a canopy and and tightening on me getting closer and i'm going i'm freaking out i'm going crazy but it's real i could feel it and then the faith that god exists but i never knew because he was light now the comments are light they tell you there's no god exactly so if the fact that god exists that has been light of course the are lies hell up oh i clicked it there is a god and these guys have been trying to tell me there it is i could feel it because you were born under the whole thing you were born under it completely and and it was actually into it you were born into it and under it yeah and it was a christian country back then but there's no god uh but but yet my mom and dad never say this because they're scared that nobody won't tell you nothing other than what the communists everybody agrees steal your speech steal your everything you believed in god you didn't say a word why didn't you say a word so she believed oh my god well door to dog sway you know she was born in the freedom you know her mom that her grandma was a very a devout orthodox later on she told me these stories but i said well you didn't say a word she goes well i didn't want to confuse you because the communists say you know i want to get you in trouble so everybody's scared you see what i'm saying so awful so anyways i'm feeling this and and the faith that there is a god just goes right through me like like whoa completely wow and so much so that i i hit the dirt i i felt like like uh i'm not reviving no no catchers but i just boom i hit the dirt and i shook i'm completely overwhelmed i was shaking on top of that mountain by yourself just you and god yeah me and me and this i couldn't call it the god in the sense of a person but it was something definitely something absolutely whatever this is i want to know and it's like hovered over me the whole until the evening it got dark and it goes so a long time yeah the whole afternoon until evening i was out evening was you know it was a winter time so it was like around five o'clock start getting dark and cold and and so i just i moved out of there i went down to my van drove it down to the house and knocked on the door they opened the door they go yeah come on in they could tell they could tell like i was like ah you know i cried the whole afternoon you know like i'm like an emotional mess you know and i didn't go to the kitchen it was straight into the living room they started worshiping and i just forget the food i wanted to because they were worshiping by then you know they started they started singing praises to god because i got finally touched you know finally it's bulgarian well it got through to him because they can see i'm here after two months after two months which which is by the way they say it takes about two months for complete i mean part of the this this missionary compound here i've i've read the statistic that that missionaries know that it takes about two months for hardcore uh you know non-believer if you if you take time with them it's average time actually is it two to three months is what the average yeah wow take time and love and focus and really get to know yeah and they open up wow because you can't sustain that much love and because your heart is wired to to receive you know to be saved you know everybody's heart is wired to be locked you know so when people take time and so that's that's absolutely true statistic it worked for me you know not way not right away because you don't trust anybody yeah but through loving you begin to slowly open up and and the moment trust hits that there's they're doing something because they're not they're not getting they're not trying to get something out they're just doing that with a pure motive yeah so they're not in a hurry they're not rushing now they're not trying to get a decision and yeah and basically by taking time with you they show you valuable like they believe in you yeah it's really jesus believes in you and they're communicating his faith for you that's how we get saved we say by grace through faith you know even that is a gift right yes wow so so we give each other you know like i have faith comes if i have the faith for you you know i see you with the faith of god like hey believe and instead of taking time for you before you know you feel it's his fate in you you know but with the we we used by the lord to to process it to to impart it because it's a gift card library called laboring wow with christ with christ and so i'm like i'm like they're worshiping the lord and i'm just sitting there now now because they would worship before but it's to me just music you know yes like after dinner they play some music they're not very good musicians i'm like they even had guitars out of tones like i'm going they're pathetic you know but they're excited like it's like this they're the best band in the world i'm going i just always criticize in my mind you know nothing [Music] they're trying to impress me with their music and they're absolutely losing it the food is always good though the food one but now they're playing this music and i don't care about the guitars or anything i'm just i just know that they're connected to this canopy wow this blanket i could tell that there you could tell yeah i could feel that i could feel it there was a sign yeah yeah and i go okay whatever you're doing you just go yeah you're there and so the whole thing welcome to the family yeah complete don't understand but you just you're in it right yeah and and just as they're worshiping the lord singing it's not a very bright room they kind of dim the light a little bit they're worshiping the lord all of a sudden i saw two hands like like right up to here not the full body i didn't see the person but i saw the hands and that was the hands of jesus and he i've only seen his hands and never saw his face but it was the hands and he was like that tore me the hands toward me and i just fell straight straight into the hand forward first i felt backwards it's a dreadful thing to fall into the hands and then like oh god that scripture you know it's a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living god oh but he wanted me gratefully wonderful wow fell right in it fred and he was welcoming me how beautiful and he put i felt his put his arms around me you know and a squeeze kind of oh my gosh i just fell and he put his arm i mean i fell on the floor was thankful there's a good carpet like that i just fell down but i could feel his hands around me and i was safe man i was in in his hands i still didn't know he who he is but i knew there's some sort of person involved you know and then and then they say okay now ask the holy spirit ask the holy spirit to feel you because like he can baptize you know what is that don't worry about this ass and uh and then i start asking and asking and nothing happens and i'm frustrated because i'm new at this i'm unsick and sure and so so just not working and no no it's okay it's working just don't worry about it just just keep asking he'll fill you with the holy spirit you gotta get it and uh at that point i'm getting frustrated and think what's wrong with me of course everything is you're guilty about everything you're you're not right you know everything's done you're wrong you know you you're into that space because you've thought of thinking about your past yeah every life until now i'm now in the hands of someone i don't even know what god is like but i'm open you know and they say there's more you got to get the holy spirit then you'll know a lot more yeah so i'm like okay okay then asking and nothing is happening and then suddenly um and then one day they were they were talking about the holy ghost i go look stop talking about holy ghost unless i have it because i don't want to you know be cheated from something that you have but i don't why you know is there anything wrong with me tell me for the thing wrong there was nothing wrong with it you've been communist all your life chill kill teacher i said don't tell don't tell me to chill i've chilled for too long i want it all now i had an attitude i want it all now and and i said okay we'll pray for you they went in a room like this a little room and i'm coming against the wall sitting there they're behind they're gonna start praying for me and suddenly i hear a surround sound of sounds of voices like cheering like fans like a soccer fan like a stadium we're full of cheering fans around in the middle of it like millions of shouting fans and then suddenly the wall disappears oh my gosh you know all now is i'm in the throne room my face is in the drone room what and i'm stepping inside the throne room and these angels are swirling around god's throne he cannot see him he's covered oh my god and and and and and it's just like the lightnings and fire comes out through their bodies and they're just like in ecstasy it's like being touched and kissed by god and just like his light goes through them and just like ah you know and then one of those lightning bolts comes right at me through between their bodies and it hits me i'm like yes i'm going whoa boom and it hits me oh it's so hot ah it's burning and another bowl comes out oh this big is like a grapefruit and it hits me wow and i'm going what and it's like good but too good right hot too hot feel like love but too much like so i'm pulling out i cannot sustain that i'm pulling out i was like i can't take another ball you know and i'm turning around and the guys are going to pray for me are starting to pray they're not yet praying it's like getting ready and i'm going baba i love you the guy that means the lord his name is bob the the big so i love you with the love of god again she said i know you love me not like before can you feel this and he's staring at me i'm going i gotta get out of here because this is so hot the room is now like oven oh my god that little room is like a heater oven and i'm running out and it's cold outside it's like a february but uh it's not cooling me because fire now is behind me is everywhere like i'm like on fire oh my gosh uh and i cannot figure out what it is because they didn't say nothing about fire they said this holy ghost yeah and it was peaking tongue but they didn't say the fire he was baptized before he forgot the fire so i got the fire but no tongues i'm screaming i can't even speak i'm just going ah you know and i see a puddle of water like this big in the asphalt and i dive to cool off last resort it's it's funny but it is how no no this is amazing it's like the instant goes cool in the water cold water and i go in the water and it's like steam it's not hot it's not cold at all it's hotter make things worse and i'm going i'm going to fry i'm going to be executed right now i'm dying because it's just like i'll i'll just boom i'll just explode in pieces like one more degree of the fire it's like you know and i say stop killing me stop please stop instantly stops the whole manifestation ends right there now i'm wet and cold and i'm going oh my god why did they say stop it was so much fun but it was it's just like georgian and that was my first big experience with god i mean i got branded by the fire like i got the fire gosh yeah i spoke intense two days later too but unbelievable that that was the that was yeah whoa do i exist yes son yes and fiery the fiery consuming fire i know that enjoy you know start with the joy celebration right i saw the celebration right at the beginning maybe maybe three weeks old saw the celebration and so that brought me to the naming of a mission you know to celebrate to celebrate because it's celebration heavenly celebration wow so i'm supposed to have heaven on earth so so that was the history behind why we call global celebration oh my god just tell everybody he loves you and we're celebrating you because you know he's came to save you george and this is so beautiful what a testimony what a story that was epic epic let's make a movie yes and and tell people witness stop the way right there we don't have to go to my christian life i've i really been thinking seriously about that yeah there's some couple young uh girlfriends of my daughter that says let's make you a movie for that and just finish that to witness natural imagine finishing on that scene of the fire boom that's it there's more if anybody's interested there's more going on we did a sequel for years yeah [Laughter] oh my gosh georgian that is so dramatic from the lie being brought into that lie that there's no god and that journey to escape and to find it and truth was in you and you wanted that hollywood disappointed you ultimately totally sent you to the mountains of ohio and god had saved the community there just for you and they spent two months loving on you they did wasn't this quick thing no no it was a time and it was a a marinating and a an investment pursuit yeah and then oh wow it's unbelievable wow i know it's i know what grace by grace through faith was saved grace is aggressive faith is aggressive faith comes and through those who know wow georgian can you come back another time we've got to do a second part all right we're going to finish now but this was unbelievable let me give you a hug oh my god oh my goodness whoa guys i hope you are so i am encouraged just you must be encouraged from that story that was incredible thank you for watching iris after hours if you want to make a comment you'll see there's a spot on here to make a comment but georgian thank you for coming in and we are getting georgian back do not worry about that we've got more there's more to come the sequel come on we've seen the first movie we're gonna get the second movie coming up very soon love you guys have a great week and we'll see you soon god bless this podcast is presented by iris global for more information or to support the work of iris global please visit us online at irisglobal.org

Channel: Iris Global

Views: 8,182

Rating: 4.8644066 out of 5

Keywords: iris after hours, iris after hours podcast, iris global, iris global ministries, iris global africa, Heidi Baker, Rolland Baker, Nathan Kotzur, Crystalyn Human, iris missions, iris missionaries, stop for the one, iris ministries, christian missionary, christian missions, missionary NGO, missions NGO, free, encouraging, testimony, Georgian banov, GlobalCelebration.com, global celebration

Id: FQu4el5xxzw

Length: 66min 14sec (3974 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 31 2016