Freed from sin in Romania: "Jesus hasn't changed"

The life of Marian Mocanu of Bucharest, Romania, embodies the words of the familiar Advent carol, “Oh come, oh come Emmanuel,” when it says, “Oh, come, thou rod of Jesse free / thine own from Satan’s tyranny.” For 12 years, Mocanu struggled with addiction. He started using drugs when he was in high school, and he kept using, even after marrying at age 23. Drugs had a hold on him that he could not shake. The well-meaning advice of friends just made it worse.

“You’re a nice looking guy,” some people said. “You should go with women instead of drugs.” But that just compounded the problem

“So then, I was committing adultery and addicted to drugs,” Mocanu told me.

Someone else said, “Heroin is a bad drug. You should try marijuana or cocaine.”

Things went from bad to worse.

At his lowest point, Mocanu—who is about 6 feet, 2 inches tall—weighed only 99 pounds.

“You realize how I was looking. Just like the holocaust,” he said.

It’s hard to reconcile that image with the smiling, well-built man who stands in front of this room full of homeless people, leading the singing. He’s from the Roma people, also called gypsies, as are many of Romania’s homeless. But at the Life and Light Center in Bucharest, he’s a Bible teacher and inspiration. The homeless Romanians and street children listen to him because he’s been there.

Mocanu explains how he tries to find points of contact with those down and out men and his own experiences. Even if he can’t understand completely, he offers hope that God can.

“I can’t understand exactly, but I know that God understood me, so if he understood me, he can understand you,” he tells them.

Before 2009, Mocanu knew nothing of God. He was wasting away in body and soul, and his attempts to free himself just led to deeper trouble. He said Satan made it easy for him to get money for drugs. It was no problem.

“When you want to take something to destroy yourself, Satan will give you a way to keep you bonded,” he said.

But then Mocanu’s wife and mother started going to church. He noticed a change in them, and he asked them where they’d been. They told him they had been to meet Jesus.

“I felt like thunder in my body. Or I’m too drugged. Or this is true? I want to meet this Jesus, if this is true. … I asked my mom and pastor to come explain [to] me about Jesus,” he said.

After he asked his pastor and mom to explain about Jesus, they asked him three things. Did he believe that Jesus exists? And Mocanu said, sure. Even on TV they date things BC and AD. He must exist. Then they asked if he believed Jesus is the son of God: “I thought, yes, I could see many times how God kept me alive. Yeah I think, he’s the son of God.

But thenthe pastor asked if he believed that Jesus could heal him.And Mocanu thought, no. He didn’t believe that. So the pastor went to the Bible— Hebrews 8, where it says that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever—and said Jesus hasn’t changed.

“He’s not changed. If you believe he’s the son of God, he can do the same as 2,000 years ago. It was logical [to] say, yes, I believe he can heal me,” Mocanu said.

He ended up in the hospital on the verge of death from septicemia, but God healed him and took away his desire for drugs. Now he travels, playing his violin, and giving his testimony to encourage men still trapped in addiction.

Listen to Susan Olasky and Marian Mocanu discuss his redemption from addiction and faith in Jesus on The World and Everything in It: