If you saw any coverage of this year’s National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC, it probably featured the picture of President Trump holding up a paper with the headline “ACQUITTED”. Shortly after the President arrived, Dr. Arthur Brooks gave the keynote address based on the theme of his recent book: “Love Your Enemies.” He challenged the audience: “How many of you love somebody with whom you disagree politically?”, opening the door for at least a gesture of reconciliation between Trump and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who was also on the platform. But when the President got up after Brooks to give his own speech, his first words were: “I’m going to have to disagree with you there, Arthur.”

The group with whom we were watching the breakfast (in a Hilton Hotel suite meant to welcome visiting European guests to the NPB) let out an audible, disappointed, “Ohhhhh….”

But in our time working with the European Prayer Breakfast, we have learned that the public event is only the tip of the iceberg. Even if the event does not produce hoped-for results (Trump shaking Pelosi’s hand?) we see that Jesus is everywhere spreading love—sometimes even between enemies.

Photographer: Oliver Contreras/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Carlton and I were particularly excited this year because we had a group of six people who came under the auspices of the European Prayer Breakfast:

  • Alojz Peterle, first Prime Minister of Slovenia and three-term Member of European Parliament (MEP). Until he lost his bid for re-election last July, it was his office that issued invitations to other MEPs in the Parliament.
  • Peter Van Dalen, a Dutch MEP who has taken over Mr. Peterle’s role as Convener of the the EPB. Mr. Van Dalen is known in the Parliament for his role fighting against religious persecution.
  • Cristian Terhes, a newly-elected Romanian MEP who is also a Catholic priest. Mr. Terhes is one of ten new MEPs who have joined the weekly Parliamentary Prayer Group that Carlton facilitates, after all of the previous members failed to be re-elected in 2019.
  • Prince Felix de Merode, the son of Prince Charles-Louis and Princess Clotilde, our close friends who work with Carlton on helping promote the cause of prayer breakfasts and prayer groups in all the parliaments of Europe. Felix is also my (Shannon’s) boss, as he is the headmaster of the school where I have been teaching recently.
  • Paul and Ivana Susman, respectively a Romanian lawyer with the EU Commission (the law-making body of the EU government) and a Slovakian diplomat. Paul is Carlton’s right-hand man in organizing the EPB, and this was his first time at the NPB, along with his lovely wife (pictured at the top, with the two of us).

All of our friends had an amazing time in the days around the NPB, connecting with friends from both sides of the pond. After the breakfast, we all gathered in the European Suite to reflect on our time there, to share ideas we had had for our own prayer group and prayer breakfast, and to prayer for the EPB. At the end of the meeting, great conversations continued. Felix and I, for example discussed having a prayer group at the school, and Carlton and Ivana discussed her interest in getting involved in anti-trafficking work with Serve the City. On their return to Brussels, Paul Susman helped organize a dinner for our MEP prayer group with one of the NPB spokesmen, David Beasley, to encourage the group. (David, the former governor of South Carolina, now heads the World Food Program in Rome.)

MEP prayer group gathers for dinner with David Beasley, head of World Food Bank and NPB organizer. Far left, Alojz Peterle; far right, Paul Susman.

Another amazing thing that happened while we were there started unfolding when we first arrived. Carlton had a meeting and I was sitting working in the Hilton lobby when I spotted a lady I thought I knew. She kept glancing at me too, and when she started to leave, I finally went up and tried a name: “Bisera?” It turned out she was who I thought—the woman who had formerly been Bosnia’s Ambassador to Belgium and who had hosted the MEP Prayer Group for several years in her embassy. While we were talking, Carlton came back from his meeting and was surprised and overjoyed to see her again.

She is now the Bosnian Foreign Minister, and Carlton asked if she would like to be connected with his friend John Richmond. Back in the 80’s, John was a kid in our youth ministry—but now he is the US Ambassador for Trafficking in Persons. Bisera told us that she had tried to connect with John’s office, but had been told he was away. Carlton knew better, and set up a meeting for the three of them together.

John Richmond, US Ambassador against Trafficking, with Carlton

When they got together, Bisera and John talked for some time about human trafficking, but eventually he asked her, more as a disciple-maker than in his professional capacity, “In your new position, what is most important to you? What is it that you want to do?” She thought about it, and finally said, “What I really want is to hold a Balkan Prayer Breakfast during the 25th Annual Commemoration of the Srebenica Massacre.”

Srebenica was the site of the worst atrocity committed in Europe since WWII: a massacre of 8000 Bosnian men and boys by Serbians during the Balkan War of the 1990s, while UN peacekeepers stepped aside and looked on. Each year there is a commemoration of the genocide; Carlton had been with Bisera to the 18th remembrance and was struck by the desperate outpouring of grief by an endless sea of Muslim women.

Carlton had already spoken to Bisera about an idea the Lord had put on his heart during the second annual Swiss National Prayer Luncheon in September. The two speakers at the Swiss event were our good friend Alojz Peterle, mentioned above, and a leading female CEO from Rwanda whose personal journey through the Rwandan genocide had been complicated by the fact that her mother was a Hutu and her father a Tutsi. After the genocide it was discovered that her mother was one of the perpetrators, and is now in prison. Carlton found himself reflecting on the odd pairing of a Slovenian and a Rwandan speaker at a Swiss event and felt the Lord say ‘invite leaders from Rwanda to speak with leaders from the Balkans about repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation.’ The genocide in Rwanda took place at the same time as the war in the Balkans, and now, 25 years later, Rwanda is completely different and the Balkans are exactly the same. Working towards a high level Rwandan-Balkan event has been a theme of the last few months, as the Lord provides contacts and connections. Shortly after the Swiss event, and without any effort on his part, Carlton was invited to speak in Rwanda for African Enterprise, an evangelistic ministry for which he is a board member. Bisera knew all this, and this was part of the back story for the answer she gave John.

John continued to engage her in discussion about this event, but recognized that this conversation was better suited for his colleague, the US Ambassador for Religious Freedom, Sam Brownback. Carlton had heard Ambassador Brownback speak at a Balkan luncheon earlier that day and was impressed with his concern for the Balkans and the message of reconciliation that he had shared. A meeting with Ambassador Brownback was set for the next day. During this meeting, Bisera presented her idea, to which Ambassador Brownback pledged his support. The next step, coronavirus permitting, is to gather Balkan Heads of State for a Reconciliation Prayer Breakfast in July, perhaps with a guest from Rwanda.

So even though the opportunity to “love your enemy” was missed from the stage of the event, we can see that Jesus was directing behind-the-scenes conversations by those attending, making room for the ministry of reconciliation.