Being a missionary is BORING!

“I think someone is being raped outside the gate.”

The four of us ran to the window to see what was going on. The screams and breathing was that of a person being attacked and it was right in front of the entrance to our home. Once we looked we could see that there were several neighbors running from their houses, so we shut the door and windows, shut off the lights and hunkered down.

Heck no! We grabbed the keys.

Once Robersy went down and gave us the thumbs up, the rest of us ran down to see what was going on. A young lady was sitting on the floor. Hands, arms, foot and hip all covered in blood. Everyone stood at a good distance as she cried. We inched in closer.

Nic, a GAP student that was spending the night at our house with Austin, mentioned he had training in First Aid and before we knew it was he was CAREFULLY checking her wounds to make sure nothing was broken. She continued to cry.

Meanwhile the police spoke to two handcuffed men nearby until the true story came out.

Moments before we had heard her screams, two men were speeding down the road beside our house with the young lady, then they threw her off.

YES!!!

They threw her off the bike!

The men (and by the looks of it, the woman as well) were clearly high or drunk or both but either way, they made the decision to throw the girl off the bike.

After they threw her off, they jumped off the bike fleeing to abandon both the bike and the girl. The police were right around the corner :)

Thankfully the men were caught and taken to jail – ironically on the back of 2 police bikes – and the girl was driven to the hospital by a neighbor because the ambulance NEVER arrived! We could hear it in the distance, but it never got there.

Help didn’t arrive in the way we had expected, but God allowed the four of us to be a help and light not only to this young lady, but to the police officers and our neighbors as well. We comforted the young lady and reminded her that it could have been worse, MUCH worse (none had helmets on) and we thanked the LORD, audibly and publicly, that she was ok.

Keep praying for her full recovery.

As I share our experiences each week it is not, nor has it ever been, to scare my family or discourage people from coming to the mission field. 

It is simply our reality.

Scary? YES!

Dangerous? YES!

Exciting? Ohhhhh, YES! Lol.

And our experiences are not the only ones out there.

I write this blog, sharing the CRAZY things we get up to, in an effort to shine a tiny light on what missionaries face all around the world.

God has called us out of our comfort zone to guide others to Him and Satan HATES it! That means we are under attack! 

We face tough things. 

REALLY tough things. 

And if you think my blog contains ALL of our experiences, you are sadly mistaken. Even this week I faced a situation on street ministry that shook me up too much to share. I try to filter a little :)

You see... through every trial, every problem, every attack, I try to find Jesus. 

His light, His lesson, His message.

That’s my way of kicking Satan in the hiney.

It’s my way of saying, “Look what you TRIED to do, you big meany, AND look at what CHRIST taught us through it.”

For example... 

This past week I was home all day while Robersy was out. This meant at some point during the day I HAD to take my poor puppies out to pee since Robersy wouldn’t be home until late.

So I got Josiah’s carrier (which is totally magical and puts him right to sleep immediately), put the dogs on their leashes and locked the door behind me. The dogs had been great and did their business quickly so it didn’t take long before I was returning to the house.

The sky was dark and it wasn’t raining but suddenly a clap of thunder startled all of us and Tonky (our middle “child” and wuss of the family) darted for the house pulling me forward. 

There is quite a bit of construction on the road in front of our house at the moment so as I fell I also tripped over rocks, let go of the dog’s leashes and tried to catch myself.

It felt like slow motion but as I held my baby close I was able to maneuver and landed on my back/side instead of my front. The fall startled Josiah so he cried, but he wasn’t hurt. I just laid on the ground until he calmed down.

Remember the construction? Well there is about 20 men doing that construction. HAHA. So I had an audience! But out of those 20, two men stopped what they were doing and ran towards me to help me up.

Bad idea!

My other dog, AKA my favorite “child,” LOL is VVVVEEEEERRRRRYYYYYYYYYY protective of me. She has been since I got her, and at the sight of 2 men coming towards her “momma” she went CRAY CRAY! My sweet girl barked and snarled and did all she could to stop the men from “hurting” me.

By that time I had sat up, but continued to cover my little boo boos with kisses and let Chiquita keep everyone away – even though they were trying to help.

Ok, so stay with me here.......

That could have been the most discouraging thing to happen in someone's day.

A father's love.

Embarrassed with falling in front of 20 men. 

Feeling like a horrible mother and knowing people will judge you for walking 2 dogs with a baby. 

Physically in pain, but thankful that your baby is ok. 

The situation just stunk.

BUT!!! As I sat on the floor with my arms wrapped so tightly around my precious boy. I pictured Jesus.

How His arms of love cover each one of His children. But our God and precious Savior loves us SO much that it leads Him to protect us from the "evil one" too (Chiquita gave us this visual).

My protective girl.

Isn’t that beautiful?!

Every day we have a choice. 

We can let the bad things, the attacks, the experiences DISCOURAGE us and make us ANGRY and just cause us to be super negative people (and HORRIBLE examples of Believers).....

 OR

We can find Christ!!!

He is always there, but we can chose whether we see Him or not. We can learn, we can grow, we can change simply by choosing to kick Satan in the hiney and see our Savior instead :)