Cam Gamble and his wife, Jen, are the founders of Project TAKEN, an organization focused on training missionaries serving in hostile countries. Their heart is to impart practical training with a supernatural approach so that missionaries can bring light into the darkest of situations. In this blog post, Cam shares about a hostage negotiation that was transformed through the power of worship and the song, “We Will Not Be Shaken.”

“Recently, I had a conversation with a friend who is a professional musician. He and his family had moved to Redding from Canada to pursue his calling. He was feeling discouraged as he had been trying to find his place among the many talented musicians here, and was considering moving back to Canada. As he spoke, I felt like I needed to share a recent encounter I had that completely transformed how I view my ministry, work and perspective on the power of worship.

I got a worried phone call in the middle of the night from Mike Cruz, a pastor and friend at a local church, The Stirring. He asked if there was any way I could travel down to Mexico to help out a young family. Caesar, a worship pastor, and his brother had been kidnapped and the family was in the middle of negotiations with his captors, but felt like they needed additional support. In my line of work, I sadly see these situations often and they are often very difficult to resolve. Almost immediately I said yes and hopped on a plane.

While I was en route, the pastor I was going to stay with had two kidnap attempts made on him, and it wasn’t safe for me to stay with him. So I headed to Caesar and his wife, Daniella’s house. As soon as Daniella opened the door, the song, “We Will Not Be Shaken” flooded out from within the house. I was completely blown away. I had just flown thousands of miles to get here and a piece of what I knew was already here, paving the way. Normally, in these situations, God is not the center of what’s going on. Anyone else in Daniella’s shoes would be struggling to cope with their husband being in captivity and the uncertainty of whether or not he would ever come back home. But, because of what was happening here in Redding with Bethel Music, and the worship being released, God’s presence saturated this dark situation and created a completely different atmosphere.

A couple of days later, we were in the middle of negotiations with Caesar’s captors. Daniella and I had the Bible open and as we listened to the negotiations, we began walking through the room praying. I remember looking over and seeing the words to “We Will Not Be Shaken” suddenly appear all over the walls. We had been praying for a safe and quick release, but suddenly there was a shift and all of us felt like God was giving us an unshakeable peace — everyone would be OK, so our prayers turned to praying for their captors.

Very uncharacteristically, the negotiations went smoothly, and after ten days, Caesar and his brother were released for a very reasonable ransom. When Caesar returned home, he shared his experience. At times, the situation had challenged everything within him as he was beaten and deprived of sleep, food and water. Even in the midst of this, he and his brother prayed and focused on God, and even had the opportunity to pray for one of their captors. My experience in Mexico with this family has impacted me deeply. They shifted the atmosphere through their worship and did not let the enemy have a foothold in their minds. Today, Caesar and Daniella are celebrating the first full year of their church plant in Mexico, and are now parents to their second child, a beautiful baby boy.

As I shared this testimony with my friend who wanted to give up on his music ministry, I told him, “Wait a minute. You need to understand that your sacrifice impacts people in situations far beyond what you could ever comprehend.”

If there’s one thing I could say to encourage you is that serving God through worship ministry is not just about music and leading people into the presence of the Father, it’s about shifting atmospheres so that others can be strong in their situations. It’s not just about Sunday morning service or selling albums, or leading people into the presence — ministry is about giving people life and hope to set the captives free. We were taken captive by religion, but worship pulls us out of that.”