18 September, Wednesday night, a night that will not be quickly forgotten.  At a celebration meeting, I was just wrapping up my message when I saw strange men walking down the aisles of the church.  My mouth went instantly dry when I saw the guns in their hands.  It seemed as if my mind froze, but I remember thinking, “Oh God, please save us!”

They started shouting at us to get down on the floor and lie on our stomachs.  As I was getting down, the ringleader pointed his gun in my face and shouted, “Rings, rings!”  I struggled to pull them off, but remained calm, thinking, “This can’t be happening to us.”  He shouted, “Cell phones, money, jewellery!”  By this time I had thrown my rings at his feet, so he moved on.

Having the microphone still next to me, I joined in the chorus of audible prayer, over the microphone.  The men were going from person to person demanding their valuables.  I urged everyone to remain calm, which enraged the ringleader, who came rushing back to me.  He put his gun against my head and screamed at me to shut up as I was driving him crazy.

I resumed praying.  A supernatural calm seemed to have taken over in the middle of their frenzied snatching.  I had no fear – lots of concern for those around me and an overwhelming sense of responsibility for these people – but no fear.  

At some stage I heard Rainer confront them, but this infuriated them and they hit and kicked him.  Everyone continued praying aloud.

I then realised that the youth were right at the back of the church and I wanted to keep them calm.  I politely asked the ringleader if I could please fetch the children.  He looked me in the eyes and promised me that they would not hurt the children.

He was totally mad.  One moment he was shouting that he was going to “f….ing kill us” and the next moment he was apologising that they were robbing a church.  The battle between darkness and light was clearly evident.

I saw little Jed wandering around at the back of the church, and worried about the thieves reactions to that, so I asked again if I could please fetch the children.  I thought that maybe I could get the youth closer as well.  This time he agreed, so I got up and walked to the back.  Two of the other thieves started shouting at me and pointed their guns at me.  I picked Jed up, explaining that their ringleader said I could get him and calmly walked back to the front.