Is 50 Years of War REALLY Ending? - Prayer Alert September 2016

Reported By: Lisa Stendal-Hernandez
​
The entire Colombian nation stands at the threshold of what could possibly be the end of the 50 year old conflict between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrilla movement. As historic as this is, it has not resulted as idyllic many had imagined the long awaited end of the war would be. There are always too many questions that unfortunately do not have simple answers. At this important crossroads in Colombian history the country is found divided and confused. Divided over polices of how and when the war should end, who should pay for the decades of bloodshed and what that cost should be. 
When people imagine a war ending, they don´t imagine that it might not end the way they want it to. They don´t imagine that the protagonists might not be the people they would have chosen. I don´t think a single Colombian would say they want the violence to continue. But everyone from government officials to housewives have a strong opinion as to how this conflict should end. It is harder than you think, even for me, to come to terms with the fact that if this war is to end, we all need to simply stop. To speak of forgiving and forgetting is all too easy until the time comes to actually forgive and forget.

The ability to forget is something that only comes as a divine gift from God. The Lord is the only one that can make us capable of forgiving those who have done us wrong, or done our country wrong, and beyond that He can heal a nation to the point that it no longer remembers the hurt and sorrow. 

News headlines wanting to promote our current president will say that the Colombian government is on the brink of a historic achievement of peace, that finally the FARC have been “talked” into submission. But in reality, it is perhaps the most confusing and darkest of times in Colombian history, not only because of the many evils that have plagued us for decades, but because of new, unprecedented perversions leaked recently from within the government's top institutions including the Supreme Court and the National Police. It is a time when fear is used to label citizens, if you are against the peace talks in Havana, you are a war monger. If you are for them, you've sold your country inconsequentially to communism without the batting of an eye. Division and corruption have led to despair and too many people wonder what (if any) good can come out of all this madness. 

But just because it is the darkest of times does not mean that God does not stir, even shake in the darkness. People are right in not seeing a clear solution in the corrupt political, economic and religious arenas. There is none. But the Lord is orchestrating something worth showing to the world. And at the true end of it all, no-one besides Him will be able to take the credit. No noble prize seeking president or self-appointed revolutionary savior of the masses. No one. God alone will stand and it will all make sense: how one of the most violent countries in the world finally found peace and was granted the gift of being able to collectively forget.

The people who are willing to be used by God will be the game-changing players.  That is why now more than ever this is about a change of heart. Now more than ever, the work being done in Havana (not the “peace talks”) but the real work on God's hidden agenda is so vital. This is the time when proclaiming a clean message here in Colombia and in Cuba is so important. Please keep us, our family, friends and co-workers and the nation of Colombia in your prayers.