What can I say about Michael Weiss? He’s compassionate, wise, and he loves Jesus.

He also laughs at all of my jokes, which makes me feel good about myself.

Michael sees the Kingdom of God, and he talks about it all the time.

I’m glad to call him a friend.

Enjoy…

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“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.”  (2 Corinthians 10:4, NIV)

I received a call from my friend Mark’s wife, Lauren. She told me that Mark is traveling to a war zone tonight. By tomorrow he will be in one of the most dangerous locations on the planet.

No, I it’s not a figurative war zone, it is an actual place of war in which men and women lose their lives every day.

I am excited for Mark as is Lauren.

We’ll get back to Mark’s destination—first let me tell you why I respect Mark. There are many reasons but, the biggest happened in July of 2008. In that month, Mark, Lauren and I led a team to Progebische, Ukraine. We were conducting a VBS for kids and a week-long revival service for adults.

Here is the short version of a very long story: When we arrived in Ukraine we discovered that the local Governor did not want us to conduct our VBS. She was convinced that we were CIA spies and intent on corrupting their children.

We tried to meet with her but the best we could do was get an audience with her vice-governor. Specifically, this woman wanted to tell us we would not be permitted to preach the next night to a group of teenagers. This in spite of the fact that it was to be done in a public place—an open field.

In our meeting we listened and made no promises. I invited her to attend our program and assured her we had nothing to hide.

As we left that meeting Mark said, “Michael, you know I plan on preaching a Gospel message to those teenagers, right?” I said, “Mark, you do what the LORD tells you to do.”

We met in an open field. The vice-governor came. We sang. Mark preached and she left with an angry look on her face.

Mark had no idea if he would be arrested, kicked out of the country or even beaten. None of us knew.

But, Mark shared the Gospel anyway.

Mark now serves as a Chaplain for a local company that trains bomb-sniffing dogs. The trainers and dog handlers are former military and Mark is there to pray with and minister to them.

A group of them were sent to Kabul Afghanistan. Yesterday, the Taliban blew up a truck bomb in front of the hotel in which they are staying. The Military came in to search for bodies only to discover that NO ONE died. They all miraculously survived.

The group then went to a bunker and were pursued there by another group of Taliban fighters. Again, they survived that attack with no injuries.

Mark received the call early today that he was to travel to Kabul. His expressed intent is to share the love of Christ with those men and woman who survived two attacks.

Lauren, though nervous, is excited for Mark.

Mark is going into a war zone with a weapon of mass destruction: The Gospel of Christ.

Jesus said, “The Kingdom of heaven suffers violence and men of violence take it by force.” (Matthew 11:12).

Mark is one of the most violent men I know.

Are you curious about what happened in Ukraine after Mark preached?

Four days later the President of Ukraine fired the local Governor for harassing our mission.

Boom.