Yesterday, our son, a college junior, forwarded a copy of a paper he'd written for a History class. His topic was, "Germany as a Pawn in the Cold War." It was a good paper, if I can be parental.

One thing that especially moved me was his description of the Church's role in the collapse of Soviet tyranny in Germany. He'd interviewed a German emigre to this country who had described some of the long-standing weekly prayer gatherings that took place in East Germany during the repressive post-World War Two era. Those prayer gatherings gave hope to people, connecting them to God and acting as conduits by which God's forgiveness, healing, and hope came to a nation which in preceding decades had been the epicenter of so much evil.

My son said that as he contemplated these silent prayer gatherings and the ensuing events--the disappearance of the Berlin Wall, the reunification of Germany, the joyful end of Soviet-led communism--he thought of Joseph in the Old Testament. Joseph's brothers had caused him untold pain. Joseph, sold into slavery, later endured imprisonment for a crime he never committed before miraculously, being elevated to the position of prime minister in Egypt. There was a family reunion and Joseph treated his father, brothers, and family with acceptance and love. But after Jacob, the father of Joseph and his brothers, died, the brothers became concerned that the moment had come when Joseph would feel free to exact vengeance on them. They seem to have concocted a story about how their old man had told them that if he died before Joseph, they should let Joseph know it was his will that he not be vengeful toward them. When Joseph heard his brothers, he wept and told them, in the Daniels paraphrase of this passage, "Don't you guys get it, what you meant as an evil, God has turned into a good thing. Through my work in Egypt, I've been able to save all sorts of lives, including the lives of the family God has designated to be the breeding ground for the Savior of the world. You tried to do something rotten. But God turned rottenness into blessings. I'm not God. So, relax. I love you. All is forgiven and all is forgotten."

God wasn't interested in exacting vengeance on Germany, my son concluded. And a small band of praying people unleashed blessings on Germany and the entire former "Eastern bloc."

Prayer in Jesus' Name is a powerful thing! For more on the role of prayer in the break-up of the former Soviet Union, you might want to check out the following web sites: http://www3.sympatico.ca/ian.ritchie/Berlin.Wall.htm or http://www.pcusa.org/missionconnections/letters/callisong_0209.htm.

I'll share a more personal experience in this regard in a later post.