Lord, prepare me
to be a sanctuary,
pure & holy,
tried & true.
With thanksgiving,
I’ll be a living
sanctuary
for You.
Lord, teach your children
to stop their fighting,
start uniting,
all as one.
Let’s come together,
praise His name forever,
and be a sanctuary
for You.
We live scarily close to a war zone. Sometimes that can be easier to forget, but recently, it seems to be more apparent. I’ve been more and more aware of the danger that so many around us operate in. I’ve been more and more of the suffering, the fear, and the pain. I’m more aware of the darkness.
And still among that, I’m more aware of the faith. I think of Pastor Peacefully, telling us on Saturday for the umpteenth time, that he will close his migrant school/home for just three reasons: 1) they are kicked off the land 2) they run out of money for rice and 3) if this government really is free and they can all go home. His home used to be limited to 100 students, but he now has about 97 girls and 98 boys as the situation has worsened on the border. And he doesn’t yet know where he’s going to find enough caregivers or enough rice. For this month. So he’s praying.
Or take this amazing couple in Umphang, who used to have a home for twelve children. They allowed them to live with them and attend school in Thailand for safety. In February, they increased to fifty children as the need arose. And now this month, they are at one hundred children. In their home. Their daughter works with Partners, and she asked for prayer for her parents. They are considering starting a migrant school. As she told me about it, she said, “My dad, he sees that they need a migrant school. So he thinks now maybe he will start one.”
This song has been mulling around in my head for the past few days. I’m really aching for this: that God would truly create us to be sanctuaries. I can honestly, and in pure understatement, say that this has been a hard transition to Thailand. But I can also say that I’m praying this time is purifying us, making us more like Christ, and creating hearts of thanksgiving in us–so that we can be a sanctuary here. So that our lives, like the lives of Pastor Peacefully and this couple in Umphang, will be a sanctuary for those around us. That in Christ we can become “a place of refuge or safety, a holy place.”
And then, I might ache even more for the next part: that we could somehow learn to stop the fighting.