bunker

 Anne returned from her prayer walk looking rather excited. "What's that dug-out building thing over behind the church?" I had no idea. It was only my second time in Beung Klung, and I hadn't found occasion to wander the surrounding jungle alone.

We asked the lead medic about the building that day, and this is what we found out. It's is a Thai military bunker built within the last year. It overlooks a Burma Army base on the other side of the border. There hasn't been any fighting in that area recently, but it appears that Thailand wants to be prepared in the event that their neighbor decides to try anything unfriendly.

Anne considered the empty bunker an ideal place for spiritual warfare, so that's where she stationed herself the following morning. She wanted to pray something from Scripture, so she pulled out her Bible and opened it at random. Her eyes landed on Psalm 91.

"Whoever dwells in the shadow of the most high will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, 'He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust."

It so happens that Psalm 91 was the passage given to me by two different prayer warriors shortly before my first trip to the same area. Through Anne, the promise was being confirmed, its truth underlined by repetition.

A few days later at the clinic in Lay Tong Ku, we had a worship service with the medics one evening. I asked the Karen to sing a worship song of their choice. This is what they sang, in Karen...

"Hide me now under your wings
Cover me with your mighty hand"

Double underlined.

And then, Anne had Sue Bu, our Karen administrative assistant, read from the Psalm that had been percolating in her heart...

"He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart."

Triple underlined.

Lay Tong Ku is in a vulnerable position. It's barely on the Thai side of the Thai/Burma border, and unlike in other areas, there is no river separating the two countries. Patients in need of care can cross the border easily. So can soldiers, spies, and traffickers. Our medics faithfully serve in this beautiful, exposed, strategic location.

"You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.
A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you."

I believe that, through prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit, we who trust in the Lord are sheltered by a spiritual bunker. I don't claim to understand what this means for God's physical protection of his children, because that kind of safety is a small part of a much greater reality. But I have absolute confidence that we can trust him, fearlessly, for his protection from every single thing that he has forbidden to touch us.

"'Because he loves me,' says the Lord, 'I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
He will call on me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.'"