My peace I give to you

Minsk, Belarus – Friday, October 30, 2009 – 10:43am local time

It’s an interesting thing that happens when you attempt to really discern the will of the Lord and try to walk it out. Prior to my departure, a few people asked me how they could pray for me and my family while I was away. As I thought about it initially, the word that kept coming to me was ‘peace.’ When peace reigns at home, my children are calm and my wife can function each day. I can leave in peace knowing that Lord is taking care of my family. So, I responded that way to the people that asked.

We arrived yesterday afternoon and then attended a worship and prayer service last night. While at that service, I really felt the Lord impressing upon me this idea of peace, and He began to expand it in my mind to go so far beyond my concept of peace for my home and peace of mind for myself as I was away. Our team makes these trips out of a sense of call. And that call is not just to bring a message of some sort but to serve. Last night, the Lord showed me that my service this time is to be an instrument of peace here.

It has been a really tumultuous year back home in the States. In many aspects of public and societal life, Americans have been struggling. There is a real lack of peace and a real sense of tension. I arrived here yesterday, and began to feel the same is true of the believers here. Imagine if you can, a society that lived under a brutal and repressive system for 70+ years. Falsehood after falsehood was piled upon them until they simply broke. There was no hope in daily life. No hope that a change would be possible. Then, to everyone’s shock and amazement, the powers that had been in place all those decades went away overnight. “Freedom” rushed to fill the void and the people caught the faintest glimmer of hope for the first time in their lives. Now, fifteen years later, much of that promise and hope for a brighter future has not materialized. Economically, they haven’t succeeded as they thought they might. Politically, they don’t have the freedoms of most other nations and can’t choose their representative leadership. Spiritually, believers are repressed and consigned to the fringes as ‘sects’ and ‘cults.’ No wonder there is a little anxiousness and a lack of peace here!

…interrupted by the day… More to come…