I Wonder!
I wrote the following after I had met with a Pastor who had been imprisoned for speaking about Jesus to young people and children during the Communist rule of the Ukraine.
I share it, praying that it will give you an insight of the price that is paid to tell the next generation of the power of prayer in a child’s life, and the impact it can make when involving even the youngest in supporting the persecuted.
As a child of 6 or 7 years I was told about persecution and wrote letters on children’s notepaper with pretend stamps and put them in post boxes. My children have been raised with a heart for the persecuted – they have vision to overcome and they know the stories of their age group who have remained faithful even to death. They know that their time could come and they are facing that possibility not with fear, but with hope.
Kiev, Ukraine, March 2003
I Wonder!
Today I sat at the feet of a saint. I recognized him from 50 years ago; I had seen him in my prayers, in my dreams. I prayed for him and others like him when I was a child and carried him in my heart, along with thousands of others who suffered for the sake of the gospel. As a child, I wrote letters to Embassies, which probably never arrived because I was too young to know how to address them; but they were carried by angels to the throne of God. I saw them answered today when this Pastor walked into the room. I saw the face of Jesus, I saw the face of the stories I had been told in my childhood.
Here was a man who told me how difficult he had found it to believe that the freedom they have now could ever have been possible …
And I wondered why we take our freedom for granted.?
He told me that young people who could not own a Bible remembered the gospels so they could quote any part at any time…
And I wondered what had happened that today we treat the Word so lightly.?
He told me these young people would stay all night asking questions…
And I wondered where the questions and long nights are today.
He told me that over 75 years of persecution, three generations had been stolen because the Communists knew that if they could take the first 25 years of a person’s life, they could have the rest of that life…
And I wondered why the church does not know that today.
He told me that if they were found to be changing the thinking of a young person they would be sentenced to death …
And I wondered why we are not prepared to pay the price for young people and children today.
He told me that when they were in prison and suffering so terribly they prayed for their families that they would not suffer…
And I wondered where the prayers for families are today.
He told me that the church exploded by one person telling another, by talking one-on-one …
And I wondered why it does not grow like that today.
He told me that when they were persecuted and lost jobs, even in their own poverty they sacrificially helped one another …
And I wondered why our riches stop us doing that today.
He told me how they were taken to closed courts and how the Communist leaders cheered at their sentences …
And I wondered why we abuse our freedom, why we flee from the jeers of those who can do us no real harm.
He told me that his prayer is for revival in his nation, for sanctification and unity of the churches…
And I wondered whether we are really ready to pay the price that we might see that in our nation.?
He told me that Jesus took all the sickness on himself and we must get sick like Jesus did in order to carry the sickness that keeps us winning souls…
And I wondered whether we wanted to be that sick.?
Today I met a Pastor. He walked into my life as a saint who had suffered in the Communist persecution under Stalin; he paid the price to tell young people about their Savior, he was part of the underground church.
I met a man who I had prayed for from my childhood. Today I knew that Jesus answers the prayers of a child, that he can take those prayers through the nations and through time, to bring us face to face with each other and with Himself.
And today I wonder who is praying for me, which child will say “Daphne, I prayed for you”?
And then as I tell them the stories… they will know that they have a Savior who answers the prayers of a child:
And they will wonder!
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