This morning I boarded a train in Cesky Tesin in Czech Republic for the four-hour jouney to Prague. One of the most beautiful cities in the world, it's architectural and old world magnificence is enhanced by the inch or so of fresh fallen snow that sparkles in the evening lights.
I was met at the train station by my dear friend Jan Vales, the President of the Evangelical Theological Seminary in the city. We drove directly to the seminary to meet with his fund-raising team. On the way to the meeting, Jan handed me some notes to bring me up-to-date on the history of the school. In it he listed some of the organizations in the United States that were partnering with them in their efforts to train a new generation of Christian leaders for Eastern Europe.
I began to read the list and began laughing. On it was Overseas Christian Council in Indianapolis, a wonderful organization that provides financial assistance to national schools. I happen to serve on their Advisory Board. I noticed that they received aid from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, the graduate school where my brother-in-law teaches in Deerfield, IL. One of their church supporters was Kenosha (Wisconsin) Bible Church, the church where my wife Sue and I were married. What an incredbly small world.
My last evening in Wisla was very special. As the day drew to a close I sat around the table with the Krol family. We talked about our dreams, things that we longed to see occur that could enable us to reach more people with the mesage of the gospel. We reviewed our visits over the last two days, laughed, and concluded our time with prayer. As we prayed around the dining room table, I couldn't help but think how absolutely glorious it is to have experiences so filled with love and mutual appreciation, deep and satisfying relationships rooted in faith. When we said the final "Amen" I began to sing a song, an old song that only Henryk and I remembered the words . . . "Heaven came down and glory filled my soul." With gusto we belted out the words celebrating God's incredible love.
It reminded me of another song, one that isn't sung too much these days. We would sing it in our church as a child after celebrating communion . . ."Bless be the tie that binds, our hearts in Christian love. The fellowship of kindred minds, is like to that above."
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