The Risks of Ministry in Paris

I've been awake for the past hour. Thankfully, my daughter woke up in the middle of the night and started crying "mama." This got my wife up. While she was consoling our daughter, she heard the phone ring. It was Becca, one of the team leaders from the group from Toronto who is was Mission Radicale and now is in Paris for a month of ministry with our church and with YWAM. I'm not in charge of this team, but have been a natural link because of being a native English speaker. We have invited the group over for crêpes tomorrow evening, which is why she happened to have our number.

My wife wasn't able to answer the phone, but she got the message right away. Becca reported that some men had broken into the church offices where 6 of the young women have been sleeping this week. (Our offices are in a separate building one street away from our main church building where the 5 young men are staying). They had been robbed. Because none of the team is French, they didn't know what to do or whom to call.

My wife got me up immediately to listen to the message. Obviously, someone somewhere in the world must have been praying for their physical protection, whatever that entailed. This led to our daughter waking up, then waking us up in order to hear the messsage.

I tried to call a number of church staff who live in the immediate vicinity of the church without any success. I did get ahold the the police, who were supposed to send someone over. I then got ahold of Pastor Werner, who said that he would go over right away. Finally, Becca called back.

She reported that none of the women had been physically touched. This was our main concern upon the getting the first message. Some of their physical affaires had been stolen. And obviously, some of the girls where psychologically and emotionally shaken up by this.

This type of trauma is commonly called "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Syndrome." It comes from experiencing a shock to the system, such as a violent act, natural disaster, terrorist incident, etc. From what I've read, it is important to have the opportunity to talk things through with mental health professionals within the first 48-72 hours.

PRAY for wisdom regarding to know how to best minister to this team of 11 young people, and particularly the 6 women who wer robbed. May the Holy Spirit minister to them also in ways that mental health care professionals cannot. And may God take away any spirit of unhealthy fear that the evil one seeks to plant in their lives.

I've observed that when God starts working in a bigger way, the evil one tries to nip it in the bud however he can. My friend Greg Vadala refers to this as giving "cheap shots." We've seen God used this Toronto team in powerful ways already. They are scheduled to lead the prayer meeting tonight. May God transform this cheap shot of the evil one into an even more powerful ministry tonight and in the time ahead.