We all laughed as we walked home, staring up at the sky beautifully decorated with stars.
The breeze from the ocean blew gently across my face and I could hear the waves crashing against the shore.
It was my birthday.
I had just spent a wonderful evening with my team and the team we are living with; celebrating my birthday at a nearby restaurant. By the time we got home everyone was tired and we all were asleep before midnight. There are 13 girls that live in one room, and we all sleep side by side on our sleeping mats. It felt like any other night, and I quickly fell into a deep sleep.
Suddenly, I woke from that dead sleep and opened my eyes. I wasn’t groggy though. I was very awake and very alert. “What’s going on?” I thought to myself. I never wake up in the middle of the night. I lay there trying to figure out what had woken me up when all of a sudden I felt God urging me: “Think Brette. Why are you awake?” I still hadn’t moved, but was quickly becoming aware that something wasn’t right. I suddenly realized that I had been staring at a shape a few feet away from my head. The more I looked at it, the more I realized it was human and that it was VERY aware I was awake and watching it. Sleeping in a room with 13 people, I naturally thought it was one of my friends at first. However, my heart trying to pound its way out of my chest told me otherwise. I again felt the Lord urging me: “Brette. THINK. What do you see?”
And then, it clicked.
There was a black man… hunched down in my room..and he was staring at me.
I bolted upright and without thinking yelled “What are you doing?” But before I could move he leapt up from where he was crouched in the corner and was suddenly standing over top of me. He straddled me, sat on my stomach and grabbed my shoulders as if to try and make me lay back down. I then heard the Lord one more time. “Scream.“
And I did.
I let out what my friends later told me was the most blood-curdling scream they had ever heard. I kicked my legs and swung my arms as hard as I could trying to push him off of me. I’m not sure if he didn’t try to resist or if I had too much adrenaline in my body that I couldn’t tell; but I got him off of me fairly quickly. I scrambled away from my bed and started screaming at my friends “GET UP GET UP THERE IS A MAN IN HERE.” The room turned to utter chaos. It was still dark and the man was still there. Everyone started screaming and scrambling to get out of their sleeping bags. He tried to grab my purse as he ran towards the window but one of the other girls snatched it back from him thankfully-my passport was in it. He did however get away with my wallet. He flew towards the window as one of the girls caught the back of his sweatshirt. The fabric ripped and then he was gone….leaving us with a piece of his clothing, muffled sobs and terrified screams.
Our contact responded very quickly and the police were called. Safety measures were taken immediately the next day. I debated even writing a blog about this but then I realized …How could I not?
It could have been so much worse. He could have been violent. Even though it was violating and terrifying what happened; he never tried to hit me or anyone else. He never pulled a weapon. All he got away with was my wallet which didn’t have very much in it.
I could look at this situation and say “How could God let this happen?”
or I could look at it and say “Look at what God didn’t let happen.”
It was terrifying. It was violating. It was the scariest thing I’ve ever been through.
So often we look at life and see the terrible things that happen. I could easily do that with this situation. But I’m going to choose not to. My friends and I have found ways to laugh about it. God protected us from so many things that could have happened. It makes me sad that this man is so broken he had to steal from us; and hopeful that my nearly empty wallet and the resistance he met that night shows it just isn’t worth it.
That man jumped on top of me hoping to scare me into being quiet. But quiet has never been a part of my vocabulary. He hoped to instill fear, but I feel empowered. Because I have the Lord. and it has just been proven to me that this is always enough.
“So we say with confidence, The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”
Hebrews 13:6
