Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

I'm Wyn Collier, and I wrote today's piece, Prayer and Transformation.

In 1982, Pastor Christian Fuhr began Monday prayer meetings at Leipzig's St. Nicholas Church.

For years, a handful gathered to ask God for peace amid global violence and the oppressive

East German regime. Though communist authorities watched churches closely, they were unconcerned

until attendants swelled and spilled over to mass meetings outside the church gates.

On October 9, 1989, 70,000 demonstrators met and peacefully protested.

6,000 East German police stood ready to respond to any provocation.

The crowd remained peaceful, however,

and historians consider this day a watershed moment.

A month later, the Berlin Wall fell.

The massive transformation all started with a prayer meeting.

As we turn to God and begin relying on his wisdom and strength,

things often begin to shift and reshape.

Like Israel, when we cry out to the Lord in our trouble,

we discover the God who alone is capable of profoundly transforming

even our most dire predicaments

and answering our most vexing questions.

God steals the storm to a whisper

and turns the desert into pools of water.

The one to whom we pray brings hope out of despair

and beauty out of ruin.

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