The New Year has taken off in full gear, and an historic inauguration is already behind us. But the challenges facing our new President are more daunting than ever, and he will not be able to pull us out of the mess we are in on his own. And so we must pray not only for Barack Obama’s safety, but that he leads with humility. He cannot rely on his own strength, nor even on the mandate of his landslide electoral victory.

May he have the courage to point us back to God! We cannot take God out of our government. It will not work, and the legal attempts to do it have done great harm. We have to recapture the meaning of the words, “In God we trust.” This is a time for prayer, whether we are religious or not. We can all pray and we should pray. Prayer is the only means by which we can gather courage for the difficulties ahead, and so it is also a wonderful way to serve our country.

This February my wife and I will travel to Rwanda for a conference on forgiveness. We go with mixed emotions — it is not a destination we would have chosen, and we feel we have little to say — yet the conference organizers have pleaded with us to come.

Rwanda is the country that experienced monumental genocide when, in a period of 100 days in 1994, one million people were massacred. One of our brothers who recently returned from a trip there writes, “How can you stand in the middle of a church looking at bloodstained clothes still hanging on the walls, with piles of bones and skulls, many hardly larger than a fist, smashed or sliced open like watermelons?”

At the same time God is at work in Rwanda, and amongst the survivors there are incredible stories of forgiveness. Even the leader of this small nation now speaks in terms of reconciliation, and this is the theme of our conference.

In my lifetime, I have traveled to Ireland, Iraq, and Israel — all countries similarly riven with conflict. There are always two sides and no one is ever completely right. Just as Rwandans cannot move forward without forgiving each other, so must Arabs and Jews begin to forgive each other if there is ever to be peace in Palestine. And if there is hope for Rwanda, then there is hope for Israel.

As an American citizen I am going to ask the Rwandans to forgive us for standing by as this terrible genocide happened. And I will remind them that, just like on 9/11, when thousands of angels hovered over New York City, so too must there have been thousands of angels over Rwanda in 1994 — angels who gathered the souls of innocent men, women, and children and brought them to God. All these souls must now be looking down on us with prayers for peace. If they are praying and we are praying, then lives will be changed, and this is the purpose of our conference.

It is a daunting mission. What keeps us going are the words of Jesus: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” Think of us and pray for God’s blessing on our journey.

Wishing you God's protection in the New Year.

Johann Christoph Arnold

 

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...don't know how long you've been back online, or if you never left and I missed it, but your words of challenge and encouragement are as bracing and welcome as ever.

Blessings as you make your trip,

Mark Kennedy