Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.      -Psalm 19:12

It was our friend Brother Andrew who started me on the adventure of seeing God in the people around me. "He can reach out to us," Andrew said, "through even the briefest contact. "Then he told this story.

Andrew is a Dutchman who for decades ministered secretly to Christians behind the Iron Curtain. Yet this selfless man carried a burden of guilt he could not lay down. Years earlier, Andrew had been among the Dutch soldiers sent to Indonesia to put down the independence movement.

When the Cold War ended, Andrew decided to return to now-independent Indonesia to serve the people he once fought. Nothing he did for them, however, served to ease his conscience. The place he most dreaded revisiting was the town of Ungaran, where his army unit had been headquartered.

"At last," he said, "I forced myself to go back there." He made himself walk up the single main road, past the mosque, to the big U-shaped school building the Dutch had used as a barracks. The building had been turned back into a school; on the former drill ground inside the U, some children in ragged clothing were playing.

As Andrew stood watching, a little girl, maybe eight years old, suddenly broke away from her playmates and ran toward him. The other children stopped their game and stared after her, clearly puzzled. The child ran straight up to Andrew, put her small hand in his, looked up into his eyes and smiled. Then she ran back to join her companions.

Andrew stood where he was, tears running down his face. "I knew Who it was Who’d come to me. It was Jesus. Jesus telling me, ‘I forgive you, Andrew. Now forgive yourself and serve these beautiful people with joy.’"

Speak to me this year, Lord, in the people You will send me.      -Elizabeth Sherrill