Six BG-RRT chaplains deployed to Ottawa, praying for and listening to people from all walks of life, including protesters, their families, police, government employees and pedestrians.
“There are so many people walking these streets who are seeing us and wondering who we are and what we do,” said Canada’s BG-RRT manager Merle Doherty. “We tell people we pray, and then we ask if we can pray for them. We have not had a single ‘no.’”
For a time, the convoy protest partially blocked one of the busiest border crossings between the U.S. and Canada. While chaplains offered emotional and spiritual care in the area around the blockade, they also shared the Gospel of Christ when God opened the door for ministry.
Local churches are lifting up the city of Ottawa, the nation and the federal government to God in prayer. Some are sending members of their congregation to pray each day on Parliament Hill.
The trucks number a few hundred now, down from around 4,000 initially at numerous Canadian border crossings.
Despite the subzero temperatures, chaplains kneeled down on the freezing ground to go before the Heavenly Father.
Billy Graham chaplains minister day or night, depending on the need and the deployment.
Even though this deployment has ended, the chaplains still need prayer, too, for whatever crisis happens next. “Please pray for us chaplains,” Doherty asked. “We don’t know who we’re going to encounter, but people here are so open to prayer, so pray that we would know how to pray.”
