The Details

Sometimes I close my eyes and I see the men walking in again. I can picture everything so clearly. Sometimes I feel like I am dreaming.  God has been so good and gracious during this time. I have felt his presence and his peace. The amount of prayers, love, and words of encouragement have been my legs to keep on going when I could not do it myself. I am so thankful. 

In order to shed more light on what occurred, I thought I would share the details. I will try to summarize but sometimes I forget things and some of the small things seemed so big to me. First off, we had moved from our former home and were staying in the home of other missionaries while they were home in Australia for a few months. The view and area is absolutely beautiful but a little isolated. 

This is my version of what happened. They divided us in the beginning. 

As I was sitting and reading a book around 8:30 Friday night, I saw a group of men enter  the house from the corner of my eye. At first, I was confused. I could not figure out why people would be entering our home.  We had just settled down after an incident with one of the dog's who had got his paw caught.  It was a beautiful, calm night and I had just finished a good book and was looking forward to starting another.  Before I fully comprehended what was going on, Julia screamed. Nothing made sense to me. Then, one of the men came over to me and said, "I am going to kill you." Stunned, I just stared back at him. He became fiercer and more adamant that he was going to kill me. After seeing the look in his eyes, I believed him. 

From that moment on, my purpose became calming the situation and doing whatever I could to keep them satisfied.  My computer was next to me, so I offered it to him and said he did not need to kill us. We would give them whatever he wanted, not to worry. He demanded money.  "No problem," I replied, "it is in my room, we can go together." He led me in there and I got out my money for him. He was angry that I did not have more American dollars, most of what I had was Shillings.  He pulled me out into the hall where another man held Julia. He was being quite rough with her, holding a gun up to her and pulling her hair.  The man that was holding Julia became angry as well because there was not a lot of American dollars. I think they were expecting to get a lot of cash, but we just did not have any.  The first man that was with me, looked at me and threatened me again if I did not produce dollars. I said, "really, we do not have any more. That was all that we had. We have already given you everything."  I explained that this was not our house, but that we were simply staying here while the couple was away in Australia.  They asked where the husband was, so it seemed like they knew that a man lived there. When the man that held Julia saw my watch, he grabbed it and was yanking it off my wrist. I offered to help and give it to him.  As they were holding us against the wall, the other men were in the other rooms searching through things, throwing them on the floor.  

After a minute, they brought us into the master bedroom and became more insistent about the dollars.  One of the men, came close to me and pointed the gun at me threatening to kill me. I said again, "that we had already given them everything." He seemed satisfied that I was telling the truth.  They took more items from that bedroom and then eventually locked is in.  We could hear them going through the rest of the house looking for more of our valuables.  Later, we saw the evidence of the search from the items thrown everywhere. 

We sat there for a while straining to hear if they had gone or not.  Because the dogs were barking loudly, it was difficult to know for sure. We sat and waited, minds and emotions reeling.  After a while, I ventured out the back door of the room that went out to the porch in order to get back in another door to unlock the bedroom door for Julia. 

Once we looked around, we could not believe what had just happened.  My whole body was trembling and I think I was just in shock. Now, we had to figure out what to do. We had no way to communicate with anyone.  Julia's phone was stolen and providentially, I had left mine at the office.  Our computers were stolen.  We pondered the thought of just leaving with our car but were still a little fearful of people waiting for us. Plus, to leave would mean unlocking all the gates in the dark, which makes us nervous on a normal nigh. The workers for the house live next door, right outside the gate. So, we decided that we needed to get to them to get help.  We knew we did not want to stay in the house that night.  We wanted out. We realized how unsafe we really were, how little security was in place.  However, to get to the workers meant going outside in the dark, not a very exciting prospect considering what had just happened. But, we knew we had to do it. So, I got a flashlight and made the first step outside. I was so scared, constantly looking around for any sign of them again.  I kept on telling myself that they would have fled by now, not have waited around. Even though my arguments were reasonable, I still didn't quite believe them and was trembling. I made it the fence and called out several times hoping that one of the workers would here. After it became a apparent that they were not going to hear me, I moved towards the gate.  I just stared at the gate and the key in my hands trying to decide if I really wanted to step outside. We were no safer inside the house, so I opened the gate and ran.  When I arrived at  their home, I explained what happened. Basic words in swahili seemed to escape me. Somehow, the message came across and they came over to help us. 

All we really wanted was to leave, get in our car and go away. Every Tuesday, we had been staying the night at the house of a couple from our church that led our home group. They have been missionaries for twenty years and we knew would take care of us. First, the workers recommended that we go to the police to file a report. We did. They came and were very kind and helpful.  But, were still anxious to go. After about an hour, we were finally able to go to the office to get my phone so that we could call.  Gary came and got us and brought us home. 

There is so much to be thankful for and we are amazed at God's protection. No one can believe that they did not wear masks, they allowed us to see their faces, and we were not killed. That is not how it works. God was there.  We have cried a lot these past few days but God is comforting us and getting us through this. I have been amazed at all of the love I have received.  I am going to be okay, it is just going to take some time.