Chaplains with the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team arrived in Germany on December 21 to minister to people in the aftermath of an attack that left 12 dead and injured more than 50 people.
Two days earlier, a truck had plowed into a busy Berlin Christmas market. Local authorities are still looking for answers in the suspected terror attack while the community mourns. Many have visited a makeshift memorial set up near the crime scene.
That memorial is one of the places where the international team of Rapid Response chaplains from Canada and the United States plans to offer emotional and spiritual care. The chaplains, two of whom are fluent in German, are ministering alongside the local churches that invited them to serve in Berlin.
“People are suffering,” said Jeff Naber, manager of chaplain development and ministry relations for the Rapid Response Team. “We’re going to offer emotional and spiritual care, especially in this Christmas season. We’re going to share the love of God; to share with people that so many years ago He so loved the world that He gave us His only Son.
“That’s why we go.”
This is the Rapid Response Team’s fifth international response in 2016 and its second to Germany. Earlier this year, a small team of chaplains deployed to Munich in July following a deadly shooting in a mall.
Please keep the Berlin community, particularly those affected by the deadly attack, in your prayers.
The Rapid Response Team, an international coalition of crisis-trained chaplains, can deploy at a moment’s notice in times of tragedy because of the support of faithful donors. Would you consider partnering with the Rapid Response Team today?
