Six crisis-trained chaplains with the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team are offering emotional and spiritual care in Munich, Germany, after the deadly mall shooting there last week. Below is one account, shared by an experienced chaplain, of how God is moving.
The young lady was working in a nearby restaurant when the shooting started last week in the Munich mall. She saw the gunman’s face. She watched him shoot someone standing near her.
How could he have missed her? Why did she survive?
A series of questions rotated through her mind, and she often refreshed the traumatic incident by looking at the photos and videos she captured on her phone on that deadly day. She couldn’t eat. She couldn’t sleep. But she still had to work.
So earlier this week when business resumed as usual, the young woman returned to the restaurant. She was working her shift when a group of people wearing blue shirts walked in. These crisis-trained chaplains with the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team were in the area offering emotional and spiritual care in the aftermath of the deadly mall shooting last week.
In a place where parking is a premium, the chaplains had just pulled into a spot directly in front of this restaurant. Only God could do that, one chaplain would later remark. They walked in, ordered and chatted briefly with the woman.
One of the chaplains asked her sincerely, “How are you holding up?”
The young lady couldn’t hold back any longer. She shared her traumatic experience and the fear that was still gripping her. One of the chaplains happened to speak her native tongue and asked to pray with her. They could keep their eyes open, she reassured the woman, who welcomed prayer.
So they prayed in the name of Jesus Christ. The prayer wasn’t long or elaborate. But the chaplains later said the Holy Spirit moved.
The next day, the chaplains returned to the restaurant to check on the young lady. She looked more refreshed than the day before. She had actually slept a little better.
“We prayed for that last night, didn’t we?” one of the chaplains asked her.
The young lady looked at the chaplain and smiled. “Yes, we did.”
“We’re doing the work of the Lord here, and it’s been wonderful,” one chaplain said afterward. “These people are hurting, fearful, and God wants to comfort them. He wants to use us to help comfort them.”
Would you please keep Germany in your prayers? Notably, please pray this tragedy would serve to unite the churches for revival, and that the Lord would go before the chaplains continually to open doors that no man can shut.
