March 01, 1990 by

Grant Parks (not his real name) recently began work among the Kurds----- the same group we heard about a few years ago when the Iraqi military gas-bombed their towns along the Iranian border. The Kurds are truly one of the Middle East's "people without a home" ----- unwelcome everywhere they live.

Parks recently sent his supporters a letter that described his first few days in the country where he is working. The following is an excerpt:

My second day here, I decided to go for a long walk across the city to get a feel for its character. Carrying my map, I set out. Around noon I felt led to pray, "Lord, have a Kurd find me." Not knowing Arabic and not really talking to people along the way, I had no human reason to hope for an answer.

A short time later I looked across the street and saw a sign: "Ibrahim el Kurdi, Doctor."

"Could he be a Kurd?" I wondered. His office was closed for "lunch" until 4 p.m., so I came back at that time and waited until a receptionist asked me what I wanted.

"Excuse me," I said, "is he a Kurd?"

It turned out that indeed he is and he was rather flattered that an American had come halfway around the world to find him!

He introduced me to his brother, who is also a doctor, and in his office I met two more Kurds my age----- students at an American university who speak flawless English. They took me to their house where they introduced me to their nine brothers and sisters and twenty nieces and nephews.

So within seven hours of my silly prayer, and 47 hours of having landed, I acquired 40 Kurdish friends!

Prayer Needs

• Pray for Grant and the rest of his team. Many have not yet arrived on the field. Pray for physical protection, that they will acquire the support they need, and that they will be able to begin their work soon.
• Pray that the friends they acquire will be enabled by God to help plant churches among their fellows.

The U.S. Secretary of State, James Baker III, made the following remarks in a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, February 1:

The changes taking place in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe...  are not all political or economic.

In September of last year, I met with Eduard Shevardnadze in Wyoming. We had very productive sessions and on the last evening exchanged gifts. I gave him a pair of cowboy boots in keeping with the Western motif of Jackson Hole. But I received from him a far more profound and meaningful gift: an enamel picture of Jesus teaching the people.

In giving me this picture he said, only half jokingly: "You see, even we Communists are changing our world view."

Could it be that a major meaning of the revolution going on in Eastern Europe is the resurgence of faith?...  Vaclav Havel, the new president of Czechoslovakia, recently told his countrymen that the most important problem they were facing was a "decayed moral environment" devoid of belief, consideration, compassion, humility and forgiveness.

Prayer Needs

• Pray that what we are observing in Eastern Europe is, indeed, a spiritual revolution and not mere political posturing.
• Pray that the current decayed environment will be swept clean and inhabited by God's Holy Spirit.
• Pray that the Church in the West will not be lulled to sleep but, rather, "work while it is (still) day" and utilize this window of opportunity for God's Kingdom.