Defector: A True Story of Tyranny, Liberty, and Purpose

Communist Romania was a land of watchtowers, suspicion, and silence. To attempt defection was to gamble with your life; if captured, the best you could hope for was brutal labor on the Danube Canal. At twenty, Mark Hobafcovich chose to risk it anyway. He and a handful of friends crept across fields, whispering about soldiers, squinting at shadows, hearts pounding against the threat of rifles. The night was long, the trenches deep, and the future uncertain. Yet freedom was worth the risk. Defector: A True Story of Tyranny, Liberty, and Purpose begins with this peril and follows where it led: from political escape to spiritual calling.

Part I immerses readers in the closed world of Eastern Bloc Romania. Hobafcovich recalls his childhood in Bozovici, where his father — trusted with guarding dynamite for the regime — modeled integrity in a system built on compromise. He remembers hunger and hardship, but also the resilience of faith under pressure. The border chapter unfolds like a thriller, filled with whispered warnings, phantom figures, and the knowledge that one wrong move could end everything.

Part II opens into the West. Here the story shifts: from flight to foundation, from survival to surrender. Hobafcovich encounters new freedoms, new temptations, and, ultimately, a new mission. He details the friendships that shaped his path, the decision to plant churches, and the conviction that liberty without Christ is still incomplete. His later service with the North American Mission Board is framed not as a career move but as the fulfillment of what began on that cold night near the watchtowers.

Co-written with journalist Paul Dragu, Defector blends memoir, Cold War history, and Christian testimony. It shows tyranny not just as a political system but as a spiritual condition — and liberty not merely as escape but as obedience to Christ.

For Christians seeking encouragement, pastors urging their congregations toward mission, students of Cold War escape stories, or anyone wrestling with the purpose of freedom, Defector offers both a gripping narrative and a living challenge. Freedom is never an end in itself. It is the chance to serve something greater—and to live with eternal purpose. (2021ed, pb, 168pp)