BLEARY-EYED IN AMSTERDAM

Your (roaming) missionary to Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, Rob Schenck, reporting:

I'm a bit bleary-eyed after an all-night flight from Washington to Amsterdam, where I'm filing this report. (Haven't been here since 1985. Still one of Europe's most friendly cities!) I have a three-hour layover before heading to my ultimate destination of Frankfurt, Germany. Here's what I wrote on the plane:

It’s 8:30 PM on Monday night, October 27, and I’m high above Goose Bay on Canada’s Atlantic Coast. (According to the screen in front of me, we’re 37,000' high.) I’m en route to Amsterdam, Netherlands, then on to Frankfurt, Germany.

 

I’ll end up ultimately in a smallish hamlet called Hasfurt to be with important friends who play a key role in our work on Capitol Hill. Yes, it’s amazing how God weaves together seemingly disparate lives to accomplish His purposes.

 

I can’t tell you much about the details of this particular mission. As you know, much of our activities in Washington are sensitive and we need to be very discreet about how and when to we talk about them. Suffice it to say that this transatlantic partnership will advance our efforts exponentially. I’d appreciate your prayers for good success. Someday I’ll give you the full report.

 

You may know some of this story: We have two buildings now on the Hill, both immediately opposite the U.S Supreme Court, one block from the Capitol and ten minutes from the White House. In other words, we’re right in the center of the action. In a matter of days, the building sandwiched between our two facilities will open as a s new state-of-the-art training center for all newly seated State Supreme Court judges and justices, making our location an even greater asset. (In fact, our two buildings have become our greatest earthly assets.)

 

You may also know we own one of the buildings,  the one we affectionately call “The O. House.” The other we lease. I’ll be talking—and praying—with the owners of that second building about how we can truly partner for the long-term in affecting the soul of the American judiciary. That’s all I’ll say about it at this stage, but more is to come.

 

In the mean time our focus needs to be on the next seven days. It’s the final stretch leading up to Election Day. If you’ve been tracking with this blog you know I think that’s pretty important. After visiting nearly 40 countries, some that have never offered their people an opportunity to craft the government that will rule them, I’ve come to cherish this extraordinary right. In many nations, citizens literally risk life and limb to even attempt to vote. In many places they know that corruption will simply nullify their vote before it’s even been cast. Still, they will stand in lines vulnerable to everything from intimidation to death. How dare we squander a right others suffer and die to exercise?

 

I do hope you will do everything possible to bring your faith and conscience to bear on the construction of our government by prayerfully casting your vote Tuesday, November 4. It’s a simple matter of Christian stewardship. Deitrich Bonhoeffer, the young and brilliant pastor and theologian martyred by the Nazis said it well. When his seminary colleagues in New York begged him to stay in the U.S. and protect himself from the wrath of Hitler, he explained that if he did not come to the aid of his people in their struggle, he could not share in the joy of their victory.

 

Though far from the danger Bonhoeffer risked, this is none-the-less a difficult time for our country, and particularly for God’s people living in it. If we don’t do our part by casting and careful, prayerful and informed vote, we will have no right to share in the joys that may follow, or to comfort those in sorrow.

 

Go to the polls Tuesday, November 4, and take someone along with you.