Andy, Sharon & Kids

Saturday, November 29, 2008
The Guatemala Adventure!!!!!

For all of you who are wondering what on Earth happened to us(Andy, Joana and Cheryl)...here's the detailed account. Make sure you're sitting down for this!

(As told by Cheryl:)

“GET OUT OF THE CAR!!! OPEN THE DOORS! ABRE ABRE ABRE!!!!!!!!!!!”

The six gunmen with flood-lights glaring in our faces yelled in unintelligible Spanish as they surrounded our van. They’d pushed us off the road in their red pickup, overtaking us on a small country road just after dark.

We were about an hour from Guatemala City, and we knew this area was dangerous but just before the border we’d been assured by several locals that incidents such as these only occurred after nine or ten in the evening. By our calculations we would be in the city by eight. But just past seven, on what seemed a peaceful winding mountain road, we were suddenly overtaken by a red pickup with six armed men in the back with hand held flood lights, pointing their weapons our direction and ordering us to pull over.

Joana & I burst into desperate prayers as Andy slammed the brakes, put the car in reverse & tore backwards for about 800 meters, the gunmen firing several shots our way, thankfully most of them missing and only one of them hitting the front of the van. The pickup carried on forward and it seemed we’d lost them. We waited for a couple other cars to pass us and then continued on. Behind us were only more dark roads and the border about an hour away. We could only hope to find a hotel in the nearest town.

Following a beat up black Subaru for company we continued praying as we drove, thanking the Lord for His protection & warding off any further incident. After about 5 minutes our hearts nearly stopped as the same red pickup repeated its attack; again overtaking us from behind. Same scene: shouting, floodlights, firing in the air this time for effect. Again we tried backing away, but the black Subaru that had by now pulled behind us was blocking our retreat. We swerved to avoid collision & found ourselves dangling a wheel off the side of the slope. Sitting ducks!

The gunmen now surrounded the car, aggravated that twice we’d nearly escaped. They opened the driver’s door and pulled Andy out; with a gun to his belly they started dragging him to the back of the van. Desperate, but knowing that the Lord was going to get us out of this somehow unharmed, we turned up the heat in our prayers. Andy, (ever the street-fighter) instead of struggling against several armed men, said loudly above the din of their yelling “WE ARE MISSIONARIES, WE WORK FOR JESUS, GET BEHIND THE CAR AND PUSH US OUT!” Amazingly, they let go of him and clambered to the edge of the slope to try and push the van back onto the road, while others grabbed ropes to tow us with the pickup. Andy jumped back into the driver’s seat & locked the door, revving the engine and trying to force the car back onto the road.

One of the gunmen with a very crazy look in his eyes came to the passenger’s side, pointing his gun in Jo’s face he yelled at her to unlock the doors, banging his fists loudly on the glass. When she didn’t comply, he came to the sliding door where I was. I held up a poster of Jesus to the window yelling back “WE’RE MISSIONARIES!” A shot went off, glass shattered, spraying my side with shards. He’d shot right through the poster in my hand and the seat on which I’d been sitting only moments before. I jumped into the front seat, landing nearly in Jo’s lap.

Now we were angry! Both Jo & I started shouting “I REBUKE YOU IN JESUS NAME! GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE SATAN! YOU HAVE NO POWER OVER US” as he reached through the shattered window, unlocked and slid the side door open & started to climb in.

Suddenly he sprang backwards out of the van and dashed to the pickup. The same instant the whole gang clamored to get back in their truck and took off like a wild tiger was on their heels. They even left a man behind who chased them several meters and managed to climb into the back as they sped away.

We were incredulous. They’d taken nothing and we were unharmed! We started breathing again, but we were still stranded in the middle of this dark mountain road. Not knowing how long it would be before they came for us again (we were sure they would), we desperately tried to flag down any passing vehicle (including a little scooter on his hurried way to the border).

After the very longest five minutes we’d ever experienced, Andy practically body blocked an approaching truck from which emerged four locals, as calm and slow moving as you can possibly imagine (or so it seemed with our high levels of adrenaline). They casually asked what happened and after our high-speed (hopefully semi-intelligible) explanation, they agreed to tow us out and escort us to the nearest hotel, about two km’s down the road.

You’d have thought we were one vehicle by how close we tailed that truck. Behind us on the road, was a pickup with hunting lights just a little too close on our tail. “You’ve gotta be kidding. Not again!” But we heaved a sigh of relief when it passed us by in the little town & we saw that it was a white pickup with no gunmen. Our rescuers pointed us to a hotel they told us we’d be safe in, and left us.

Still trembling, we approached the hotel owners who gladly put us up for the night, and offered us their private parking place for our now very vulnerable van. Still not entirely comforted, hearing gunshots & shouts not very far from our hotel room, we did our best to settle down for the night. We were reminded of so many promises of the Lord’s protection, especially “A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten-thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee.” (Psa.91:10)

The next day we made sure to not start driving till light had fully engulfed the world, and in the broad daylight we happily (albeit nervously) made it safely to our destination in Guatemala City. With the help of our local Family we went around the city to find replacements for the shattered window and the shredded tires. Amazingly, the Lord not only supplied repairs, but we were also able to tint the van’s windows.

Everyone we told the story to would exclaim what a miracle it is that we’re still alive and tell us much more frightening stories of “what usually happens” on that road. There was no visible reason for our attackers to leave us as they did, having gained nothing, but they did –and in such a hurry, it can only be for fear of the Awesome Heavenly Protectors the Lord sent to our rescue and in answer to our fervent prayers.

Please pray for our return trip, as it is three days back to Costa Rica from Guatemala and we’ll be retracing our steps… in daylight this time, with a large shipment of books for distribution in Costa Rica and Panama.