My story begins in a hotel room in Raleigh, North Carolina where I was resting before my first big missions trip to Honduras. I had never traveled outside of the United States and I couldn't be more excited that it was for an amazing cause. A small group from my church was traveling to the poorest country in Central America to help build houses, feed the hungry, give to the children, and share about the love of God.
That night as I laid my head down on the pillow, I prayed that God would speak to us and protect us while in Honduras. As soon as I fell asleep, I had the most incredible dream. I saw Jesus face-to-face. Now, for many people this may sound unbelievable or you may think that I had eaten something bad before I went to bed and I don't blame you for feeling that way. However, the truth is I saw Him and I will never forget it.
Now, I don't want to get off track here about this dream because it's just a small aspect of this incredible journey and honestly I could write pages about this one moment. Nevertheless, I have to tell you that I felt more love than anyone could ever hope or imagine to feel here on earth. In order to sum this up quickly I will tell you that the main point of His message was that I was going to be okay. In my young mind I thought-- of course I'm going to be okay. I had no idea He was preparing me for what was about to happen in the next 24 hours.
I suddenly woke up with tears running down my face and I shared with my Mom all that I had seen and heard. She had traveled with me from our home in Virginia to see me off at the airport. We both agreed that my dream must have meant that this trip was going to be incredible!
When the airplane landed in the capital city of Tegucigalpa the day was absolutely perfect. The sky was so bright it was more turquoise than blue. However, as the door of the plane opened a distinct aroma, that I can only describe as a "stale" smell enveloped me reminding me we were in a country struggling in poverty.
Our group was predominantly older than myself with the exception of one other young teen. The senior pastor, a leader from the Southern Baptist Missions group, and elders in our church made up our very small team who couldn't be more excited to have landed in Honduras. We were even wearing matching blue t-shirts--that a year before I never would have been caught dead in. Needless to say I was a fairly new Christian, and I was hoping that maybe God was calling me to the mission field and that this one trip was going to show me my path. Ready and willing to be used; we stepped off the plane and our assignments began. Our host family, an older couple, was awaiting our arrival and took us to their home. They were so kind and were doing incredible work in the area. While there we re-grouped, prayed, and then set off towards the mountainous town of Chuleteca.
We split up into two different vehicles. Most of the women on our team were in the second van following the men in the other. It was going to be a long trip through the town and up the mountains but we were ready to do it. As the cars began up the narrow, winding roads of the mountains--we were filled with anticipation. The further up the mountain we went, the more we could see people in desperate need of food and shelter. People lived off the grounds in shacks and some had no roofs at all. Animals were everywhere on that narrow road disrupting traffic and many looked as if they were starving to death themselves. Riding in that van was a back seat drivers worst nightmare. As we went around each sharp turn I grew more anxious so I resigned to looking out the side and back windows as opposed to looking forward.
While we were driving I began to notice a truck that would drive next to us filled with men in the back--then the vehicle would just fall behind us. At the time, I didn't think anything of it. Now, looking back I realize there were a lot of warning signs.
Eventually, we lost site of the van with our team in it. They had been driving a bit faster with the host missionary driving their car. (His wife was driving the vehicle that I was in.) When we finally came around a bend in the mountain we were horror struck. The van was surrounded by Honduran men in bandannas, all holding guns. They were the guys I had noticed on our drive up the mountain.
In shock we had slowed down; unfortunately it was just enough for these guerrilla fighters/gang members to swarm us. They came into our vehicle and put guns to our heads. At that moment, I didn't know what to think, it felt like a bad lifetime movie that I was watching and experiencing in slow motion.
At first my instinct was honestly to freak out--but luckily tears did not come and I was able to pull myself together. I think all of us felt a bit paralyzed, unsure at that moment what to do. So instead, we began to pray. As the men in our other vehicle tried to give the gang members money to distract them--they also yelled for us to step on the gas and try to get out of there. As our hostess bravely stepped on the gas, an angel, or maybe even God Himself spoke to me audibly and said, "They are going to shoot--duck and pray!"
I was in the very back seat of the van all by myself with two rows of women sitting in front of me. After I heard the audible voice I shouted for everyone to put their heads down. I looked back behind me quickly and saw a man holding a gun at my back window. All of our heads immediately went down just as he shot the gun. The bullet soared through the back window where my head would have been and went through the vehicle. The only person who could not duck her head was our driver. The bullet hit her right in the face. Instantly blood and skin went all over the front of the windshield.
One of the leaders in our church and the only man in our vehicle-- was sitting in the passenger seat. After our friend was shot he jumped over to her and also stepped on the brake because our van was heading off the road and directly to the edge of the mountain. As the vehicle came to a complete stop--the car was once again surrounded by these men who then began to lift our wounded driver out of the seat so they could try to get in our van.
All of us were praying-- but for me I was so stunned I didn't even know how to pray. Then I started to speak, "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on EARTH as it is in Heaven...I finally got it! I was calling for God to do a miracle on earth and I had no doubts that He was going to deliver.
It was as if time was standing still--then suddenly it began to pour down rain. Remember I told you how beautiful the sky was that day? Well, let me tell you-- that rain was sent by God because one second before the shooting it was bright and sunny. Traffic began coming from everywhere causing a confusion for our would-be captors. Then out of the blue two men jumped out of their vehicle without guns and convinced these horrible men to leave. We were safe-- but not out of the woods. The lovely missionary who was driving our van was barely breathing.
The two men who came out of nowhere began leading us through the mountains and they were our only hope in finding medical help for our friend. Interestingly enough we never really spoke to them because we couldn't understand their dialect and they couldn't understand us-- but we trusted God. In our search for a hospital for our driver, I prayed to God and I said, "Lord you raised Lazarus from the dead! I believe you will heal this woman!" I had never had faith as great as I did at that moment.
We drove through the gates as quickly as possible even crashing into them a bit. As soon as we stopped the car--the men on our team grabbed this poor missionary who was still unconscious and ran her into the building. I ran in after them and was shocked at the condition of this "medical building." I would never even want my dog to be treated in this place. It was filthy dirty and our only option. So, again we trusted.
As we all waited we made a circle and stood outside and prayed for her. As we began to pray people from the community started coming over to us and joined our circle of prayer. Honestly, I don't even know where they came from because there were no houses nearby. I remember young women with ripped up clothes, and sweet children trying to comfort us as they could see the worry on our faces. It was as if there were no language barriers and all of us were praying for our sweet missionary.
Then, we received word that she was going to be okay. The Doctor seeing her was going to get her transferred back to Tegucigalpa where she could be treated in a hospital. However, this Doctor had been able to stop the blood and we couldn't believe what we heard...
The bullet had entered through her cheek and exited without even chipping a tooth. This was shocking because there was so much blood and skin splattered all over the window that his report seemed impossible. Today, I have been told that she only has a slight scar on her face and her and her husband stayed in Honduras to continue ministering to the people there until they retired.
The ride back down the mountain was pretty scary as we felt like we were on high alert every time we went around each bend. The stress of what had happened was definitely getting to all of us and everyone felt we needed to return home.
Just like that, my first missions trip was over in just 24 hours. On my flight home I pulled out my journal where I had written down the dream I had had only one night earlier. Jesus had shown me that He was going to protect me and that it was not my time to die.
From, the audible warning to duck my head, the downpour of rain, as well as the two men who guided us up the mountain and disappeared, the sweet Hondurans who prayed with us, and finally the miraculous recovery of our friend--we saw God do miracle after miracle in order to protect each of us. In just 24-hours He changed the way each of us would serve Him and challenged us to continue a walk in faith without any fear.
Here is a picture of the van after it had been cleaned up:
I was sitting right where the bullet entered the van.
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