I Pr.ay For Peace

I had a rare hour alone a few days ago.  A is in the capital for a week of meetings and training, so Little t and I are holding down the fort.  He had been invited to our German teammates house to play and was thrilled to go over.  I rode over with them (they live on the other side of town) and then walked back home in my chadArI (burka). Rarely do I get out like that in these days, so it was beautiful. The fall air was perfect and the blue fabric enveloped me in a sense of anonimoyit that was freeing. I walked along the streets, through the bazaar and home without prying eyes or a feeling of being uncomfortable because of standing out in the crowd. 

As I walked past the hospital, I prayed for peace.  Knowing that people of every walk of life enter those grounds and the clinic that we run there. I was reminded of how important peace is in that place.  Family members and members of the t-ban themselves are brought in for treatment.  We don’t turn them away, but pr.ay deeply that the generosity and kindness that they experience will stop them in their tracks. 

As I walked through the busy bazaar, bustling with afternoon shoppers, I pr.ayed for peace.  In the middle of a drought, with food prices at all-time highs, survival is a challenge for everyone. I pr.ayed for shop-keepers to have integrity and to think about their fellow country-men as people instead of just opportunities to make a few more cents.  I pra.yed for the shoppers who come from near and far, doing their best to feed and clothes their families when resources are so tight. 

On a side street, a line of vans filled with villagers were preparing to return from the ‘city’ to their humble villages.  Impatient kids fought in the back, babies cried, women sweated under their chadArI’s, while men stood around talking and chewing the fat.  The top of the vans were laden with supplies people had bought during the day, and things they would try to sell in their villages.  I pra.yed peace over these people as they traveled, safety on the roads and for some interaction with Je.sus, even though they are so secluded from the outside world. 

I pra.yed peace over the streets I walked along, houses full of families and all of the ‘life’ that comes with them – hurts and pain and fears, joys and dreams and laughter.  I pra.yed peace over the houses of our co-workers, that the changes Je.sus has made in our lives would be so real and attractive to them that they would be drawn to Him.

I pra.yed peace over every mos.que I walked past.  That the Spirit of Jesus would flood over those buildings and leave a deep longing in the hearts and minds of each man who goes to pray or listen to teaching there.  I asked that every loudspeaker would be invaded with the voice of peace when the call to pray.er erupts five times a day. That one day, the voice of Heaven would call out through the streets of this place, “worthy is the Lamb who sits on the throne!”

I pra.yed peace over the after-school learning center that had children flooding out it’s doors.  For so long this country has been crippled by a generations who have never learned.  Generations of illiteracy and deep voids in critical thinking have caused fear and paranoia to become the norm in operation.  How important it is that empowerment and learning happens in this place.  I pr.ayed for those who are eager to learn and for those who are eager to stop them from doing so. 

I pra.yed peace over the mad.rassa, down the street. Young men poured out the gate, having finished their learning for the day with afternoon prayers.  Such moldable minds in a precarious balance. I pra.yed that their efforts would be positive and their striving would be beneficial for all involved.  I pra.yed for the Spirit to move in power in that place as only He can, using dreams and visions to bring those in that place to Himself.

I pra.yed peace on the homes of our neighbors as I walked by. Knowing bits and pieces of their story and having a deep heart and love for them, I ache for their souls and their quests for fulfillment.  I know that the Peace of Jesus is the only thing to bring that and I begged Him to help me pour that forth into their lives in beautiful ways, His ways.

As I entered my yard, I once again pra.yed peace over it…like I do every morning.  I have this visual in my head of a cloud of peace hanging over our house and it is our hope and pra.yer that every person who enters our gate is enveloped in it as well. That they would see and hear and feel the difference that Jesus makes in us and in this place. 

I beg of the Lord in these days to bring His peace upon this land.  The physical war is nothing in comparison to the war for souls, the war for peace.  Oh what a day it will be when the lion lays down with the Lamb in this place, when the guns are set down and the killing stops. How beautiful it will be when fear subsides and His glory floods the streets.  


I live in hope and longing. 


Until that day, I pr.ay for peace.