In 1985 I used my passport for the first time. I was moving from LA to Seattle for work and took a three-month break and travelled to Europe. I was volunteering with Eastern European Bible Mission. Eastern Europe was closed to western influence and locked under communism. Christians did not have access to Bibles or Christian literature. EEBM was a Dutch based organization that arranged to move Bibles secretly into the east and into the hands of brave underground Christians who would receive them and distribute them to their communities or beyond their borders to those in Russia.
On one of these trips, I crossed from West Germany to East Germany through what was known as Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin. The Berlin Wall divided these countries. This border crossing was nerve wracking but we made it through as “tourists.”
Four years later, in 1989 I was living in Vienna, Austria working for Young Life. At this time, Vienna was a hub for missionaries and business people working and travelling in the east. On November 9th of that year, a woman I knew, was doing the same east to west border crossing that I had travelled just a few years before. She was driving solo through the East/West Berlin border. She had been checked out of East Berlin and was in “no-mans land” before the West Berlin checkpoint. While she waited to be directed forward, the wall was stormed with people. She froze. She waited for shots to be fired. For people to be killed. Until that moment, that is exactly what would have happened to anyone attempting to breach the Wall and escape East Germany.
Stunned … no shots rang out. There were, what sounded like shouts of excitement, not terror. She was directed to proceed to the West Berlin checkpoint. The Wall had “fallen.” Through what became known as a Peaceful Revolution, this day marked the beginning of the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the end of the figurative “Iron Curtain.” My friend was literally driving THROUGH the wall during this historic event. At Checkpoint Charlie, she learned what she had just witnessed. She found a parking place and entered into the fray of celebration.
During this time, the contrast between the east and west parts of Germany were stark. A thriving western economy vs. an absence of goods, opportunity and freedom. It was hard to imagine that these two distinct countries could ever reconcile and come together.
But they did!
34 years ago – Freedom and reconciliation began for ALL of Germany.
Last Thursday, in Kamapala, Uganda we celebrated German Unity Day with a German led evening of remembering and festivities. International diplomats stationed here, Ugandan dignitaries and friends of the German community came together. We were honored to attend and grateful for the invitation.
The German Ambassador encouraged us to hope for such a national healing in North and South Korea (his previous diplomatic posting). He acknowledged what a miracle this German reconciliation really was. This is especially powerful in the midst of the current chaos in our world today.
I tend to pray for the things and people directly in front of me.
How thankful I am for international leaders like our German friend who pray for the healing of our broken world on a huge geopolitical stage. His work and prayers give me hope for the future of our planet.
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