Article January 1, 2001 ISSUE

...in Johannesburg, South Africa

by Amy Gibbs

On a cold night last year, in July, having just stepped out of the shower, I stood looking into the mirror with only my dressing gown on. I was suddenly startled by the sound of my mother shouting at someone. We had been expecting my brother home, so I assumed he had given my mother a fright. As I walked out of my bedroom, nothing could have prepared me for what I saw: a man holding a semi-automatic weapon. I soon found out that five men had broken into our house and were threatening her.

But instead of panic and fear, I had the most peaceful feeling I have ever felt. It was the most calm and clear moment of my life. I felt safe and protected by God, and that allowed me to help my mother and to calm down the intruders.

The words of the 23rd Psalm and the Lord's Prayer were a great inspiration to me during this time. One intruder began to tie me up as the others brought my mother into my bedroom. He kept on apologising, and he even went so far as to tell me that he was not going to rape me. It seemed as though he recognized my inner strength, and realised who had the power.

The situation began to intensify when one rather trigger-happy intruder pointed his gun at my head and asked my mother where certain things were in the house. How do you tell someone that you don't have a safe, or you don't believe in guns, or that the driver of the car parked outside has the keys with him, when he has a gun to your head?

My mother and I began to say the words to the 23^rd Psalm out loud, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want... he leadeth me beside the still waters..." When they ordered us to stop, we continued to pray in silence. Had my mother or I been afraid, we would have simply allowed him to have power over our lives. Instead, our strength and non-threatening presence calmed down everyone involved. The other intruders were then able to persuade him to put the safety catch on his gun and believe us when we said that we didn't have what they wanted.

Then they blindfolded us so we couldn't see what was going on. We heard them ransacking the house and eventually heard my mother's car being driven out of the garage. It was laden with the electronic equipment they took from the house, as well as all the curtains, which they had ripped off the rails. After a while things became silent. We began to pray out loud again, while my mother struggled to untie her hands. When her hands were free, she ran to press the panic alarm button and then locked us in my bedroom. She was then able to untie me.

My father and brother were not at home at the time this incident happened. Somehow I had had the inspiration to say to the intruders, while they were still in my bedroom: "We do not choose to own any guns and neither my father nor my brother have any." This didn't make sense to me at the time, but I was so grateful I had said it. Later I found out that my brother and his friend arrived in his friend's car, as the burglars were leaving in my mom's car. When they approached my brother they were totally calm. It was as though they knew that he, too, was not threatening. They forced the boys out of the car and used both cars as get-away cars.

In situations like this in South Africa, carjackers often shoot their victims in order to avoid any resistance, but through the power of prayer, this never happened. We were certain that God was the only power, and that they had no power to hurt us.

Neither my mother nor I were the victims that day. Instead, God made us the victors in the fight against violent crime.

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