Miracles in the Midst of Terror

Miracles in the Midst of Terror
by Robert & Kathryn Baxter

A story of providence has emerged through the smoke of mourning that brings hope to our hearts. The three bombs that exploded at the national football stadium were all the work of kamikaze terrorists, equipped with explosive belts. The friendly match between France and Germany attracted more than 80,000 spectators, among whom were the French President and the German minister of foreign affairs. In the crowd was one of the members of our church.

The match was well engaged when the first terrorist detonated his belt, killing a passerby. The stadium, which is only 10-15 minutes walk from our church is surrounded by stores, movie theaters, restaurants and apartments. It is a very lively neighborhood. And yet it would seem that the terrorist chose the one spot that he would do the LEAST amount of damage.

About 5-7 minutes later the second terrorist detonated his belt, killing only himself. And minutes later the third terrorist walked to a back alley, away from any passersby and detonated his belt, killing only himself. Another member of our church lives only a block away from where one of the terrorists committed suicide; with the warm weather Friday evening she and her son could have very well taken a walk, or gone to the fast-food restaurant for ice cream.

An anonymous source inside the Paris Police called the situation at the stadium a miracle. Had the terrorists exploded their belts as the thousands of people waited to go into the stadium they would have killed perhaps a hundred in the initial blast; and many more would have been killed or injured in a stampede that would have ensued. Or if they had waited the end of game and exploded the belts as people filed out of the stadium, again the carnage would have extremely heavy.

Though we may never know exactly why these terrorists exploded their belts when they did, I would like to note here that our church has nearly daily prayer in our building just a short walk from the stadium. Our church is the closet church to the stadium. We are highly conscious of the effects of specific prayer and we pray regularly over our neighborhood. And we often have evangelism teams visiting those areas.

We are calling the French to four days of prayer and fasting for our nation, Monday through Thursday (Nov 16-19). I invite you to join us. Pray with us for these things:

We are praying for God's great mercy and compassion to be poured out on those who have lost a family member, friend, colleague.

We are praying for this evil to be turned into a wave of salvation for the French.

God has told us that there are other terrorist cells active in France; and we are praying that they would be exposed to the authorities, and dealt with adequately.

And finally, we believe God has called us to repent for the silence of the church as our society has slid into moral decadence. We believe that the "normalization" of immorality has destroyed God's protection over our nation.

And He is calling us to repent.