Prayers for Poland (and for us)...

While browsing through two very different books on the train home from Lublin this morning, I (Aaron) was struck by a passage from one (the Book of Jeremiah) that reminded me in some ways of the other (Schindler's Ark).

More than that, though, the verses highlighted below also struck me most forcibly as a sort of prayerful advice for missionaries (volunteer and otherwise) here in Poland:

"This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 'Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease.'

"'Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you...Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.'

"This is what the Lord says: 'When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'

"'Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,' declares the Lord."-Jeremiah 29:4-7, 10-14a (NIV)

Continuity and cultural sensitivity, peace and prosperity. Seeking and finding, hope for the future.

These are the prayers of a missionary! :)