By Danielle Wynn, Director of Youth & Children’s Ministry, Jubilee Church Wirral

Chilean miner José Henriquez greets his wife as he emerges from the escape capsule, as the President of Chile (second right) looks on

As I washed the dishes and prepared breakfast this morning, I was listening to the radio and was inspired to hear about the motivation for Dan Morrice to write his book, Finding the Peacemakers.

A geography teacher fed up with hearing so much negative news in the world, he embarked on a journey to find some positive happenings to shout about.

He went on to talk about his inspirational meeting with one of the men who survived the Chilean mining accident in 2010.

As some of you may remember there was no contact with the miners for 17 days, and all thought they had not survived. Finally, in a response to a device that detected tapping, the rescuers discovered they were indeed alive through a note sent up.

Dan asked the miner he met what it was like in those first 17 days. It turns out that one of the older miners was a man of faith who was demonstrating a supernatural peace whilst trapped hundreds of feet below the earth’s surface.

The other miners questioned how he could be feeling such peace in a time of great stress and trauma and asked how they could feel this peace too. He led them to pray. His trust in the Lord brought him to a place the other men didn’t quite understand. He shared with them his hope. Whilst it is not known how these moments affected the men in the long term, it is clear that this man of faith was an unsung hero of this traumatic event. He was a peacemaker through his faith in God.

The two things I took away from this interview with Dan Morrice were:

1. We can be proactive in looking for the positives: The things we should sing about, the heroes that just might not look like heroes…let’s keep our eyes open to ‘find the peacemakers’ and be encouraged by them!
2.  We can BE the peacemakers too! Let’s face it…positive news brings hope. As Christians we know that we have an eternal hope in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We have promises and blessings through the word of God that we need to take hold of and run with.

Romans 15:13 says: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Let us be the example. Invite the power of Holy Spirit to overflow you with hope!!