Amsterdam, Paris, and $5,000 of Equipment Stolen

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 5:26

We had a four-hour train trip to Amsterdam. It was during the trip that Carol (our ministry photographer) showed a picture of me posing with a foul-mouthed female heckler. I said to Carol, "Wait until See sues that." That's when I realized how much I needed some sleep. We arrived in the city around 10:00 PM, met with a few enthusiastic helpers (that had driven nine hours all the way from Denmark) and went out for a late-night dinner. I was able to get an amazing 7 ½ hours sleep, then we met with ten helpers and had breakfast. It was pouring with rain, and it was forecast to rain all day. So we split camera crews. Trish went to an indoor mall to do some one-to-one interviews, and I went with the other crew to film the foundational script for the program. That went well until the last 30 seconds, when it started pouring with rain. It was almost comical. I carried on speaking in the rain (a real trooper), while everyone else gathered together in a huddle trying to keep the rain from getting into the equipment. EZ was able to get permission for me to interview a young man who was smoking marijuana at a bar. It was a great interview, and I think will be a highlight to the Amsterdam program. Duane and a crew left for Paris while we proceeded to Dam Square where Mark escaped from a straight-jacket and EZ, Scotty and I preached open air. That went very well. We did a few more one-to-one interviews and rushed to catch the train for the five-hour trip to Paris.

It had been a good day of filming-colorful interviews, good crowds, and the rain held off, for which we thanked God. We then walked for about a mile to the train station and lost one cameraman on the way. Chris completely disappeared. He was behind us filming "B-roll," lost sight of us in the crowd, thought he had been left behind, so he ran ahead of us (he must have past us without knowing it). We didn't know that, and sent people back to look for him. Finally he found us in the crowd. It was a prodigal son reunion. We fell upon him, kissed his neck and killed the fatted calf. Well, not quite. We bought chicken sandwiches and chocolate milk. I sat next to a well-dressed gentleman on the train, and after some small-talk found out that he was an "adamant atheist." I pleaded for an on-camera interview but he adamantly refused. I then told him (as nicely as I could) that he was a chicken atheist, so he conceded to do an interview where we didn't show his face. EZ spoke to him after the interview, and he backslid to being an agnostic. Please pray for him. His name is Jon (pronounced Yorn). We will be in Paris in two hours. That should be interesting. STOP PRESS! I had just finished praying that God would cause something exciting to happen in Paris. As we were exiting the train Tony said, "Where is my blue bag? It was just up here on the baggage shelf!" We searched the entire carriage and sure enough, someone had stolen a bag that contained almost all of our sound equipment. It was a huge disaster. We gathered, and thanked God for His sovereignty. I'm looking forward to seeing how God takes care of this. By the way, the bag contained about $5,000 worth of equipment and went missing around the time our well-dressed atheist (who didn't want his face on camera) left the train. Keep praying.

God bless,
Ray