On the evening of Saturday, May 22 2010, the three girls Estelle, Jamie, Ria and I were having a quiet evening at home.
We decided an early night would be a good idea. Andrew John was staying the night with a friend a few houses away. John was in the UK as part of a four-week fundraising trip for the Theological College. Estelle had spent the day playing hockey 150km away in Gweru and Jamie, Ria and I went to collect her from the school at 6.30 pm.
We had a plate of pancakes with cinnamon sugar and lemon juice waiting at home. The girls had a quick bath and then we settled down by the fire in the lounge with pancakes and hot drinks. We are usually fairly relaxed about security and only lock up at bedtime, but on this evening I locked the outside doors early so that it was one less thing to do before bed. It was sad not to find our faithful Labrador, Honey, lying by the back door as usual, since we had buried her that afternoon. She had suddenly become sick the previous day and died that same night.
Someone in the house
At about 7.30 pm, while I was reading aloud to the girls in the lounge, I heard the creaking sound of the wooden floorboards as if someone was in the house. I decided to ignore the sound and didn’t really worry. All of a sudden I saw the threatening figure of a masked man through the glass sliding door of the lounge. He was wielding a heavy metal pipe in one hand and looked straight at me, motioning with his fingers on his lips to keep silent. The man was well built and medium to tall in height. He had a piece of mutton cloth tied around his face just below the eyes and there was blood around the mouth area. I told the girls, ‘There are thieves in the house’.
The girls and I instinctively huddled together. Immediately the men told us to lie down. We lay down on our backs and we were told to turn over and lie on our stomachs. One of the two robbers said, ‘We are not here to harm you, we only want you to co-operate’. Their English was good and they were very calm and methodical. We were all told to hold our hands behind our backs and then the men tied my hands and Estelle’s hands with electric cords. They were not rough.
As we lay down I started speaking out aloud that we had nothing to fear because ‘Our God is with us and he will protect us’. Later we laughed about the robbers’ response, when the girls pointed out that the robbers must have heard ‘guard’ instead of ‘God’ and that is when they asked, ‘Where is your night guard?’ Although fairly common, we don’t have one. Then I said out loud to the girls that we know that the Lord is our Shepherd and he looks after us as his own. At some point Ria started to cry and then one of the men said, ‘If you cry we will kill you’. They asked where John was and whether we were the only people in the house. I answered truthfully and did not try to resist them.
Talking about Jesus
All this time there was some measure of conversation as the robbers asked questions, I answered and so on. The men were very civil most of the time. They had thrown some tracksuit jackets over our heads and when I said that I was finding it hard to breathe, the one man kindly lifted the jacket up a bit! I spoke a lot about Jesus and not once did they ask me to stop talking. I told them that we had a lot of treasure but it was all in heaven.
At one point I also asked them if they knew the part in the Bible where Peter said, ‘Silver and gold have I none, but what I do have I will give to you’. I told them I had Bibles to give them and I could tell them more about Jesus. After they had found the cash in my wallet, they said there must be more money. They said, ‘We were informed that there is a lot of money here’. I told them they must have the wrong house, my husband works for the Theological College and we are not rich. I said that they could see that we have no television and I told him to check the safe in the cupboard to see that it was empty. Then the one robber said in quite a genuine tone, ‘Sorry, maybe one day you will get rich’!
While the robbers then continued searching the cupboards I made the mistake of asking them what they were looking for. Then the conversation turned nasty and the one asked me, ‘Why, what can you offer us?’ Then the other one said two or three times that maybe it was time to start hitting me. I told them that everything I had said was the truth and that I had nothing else valuable. Then I went quiet for a while, fearing I would say the wrong thing again. The next minute the one man asked, ‘Why is your swimming pool empty?’ I told him that it had been green and maybe the filter needed some repairs.
Reading Scripture
The girls asked me to read the Bible. First, I turned to Luke 12, which has become a real word of encouragement and instruction to us at this time. In verses 4-7, Jesus tells his disciples: ‘I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows’.
Then we turned to Philippians 4.4-7: ‘Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus’.
Towards the end of the ordeal we were locked in the bedroom. It was around 10.00 pm and we did not know if the robbers were still in the house or if they had gone. I prayed together with the girls aloud and then I quietly prayed and asked God to send someone near the window so that I could tell them about our predicament. A moment later I heard the next-door neighbour’s gate open and a car drive in.
Let down by God?
In the days that have followed we have had time to reflect on God’s goodness to us. Some people might be tempted to ask, ‘Hasn’t God let us down by allowing something like this to happen?’
The Bible makes it clear, however, that, ‘In this world you will have trouble’ (John 16.33) and ‘We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God’ (Acts 14.22). What we are promised is God’s peace and God’s presence in the midst of troubles and difficulties (e.g. John 14.27, Isaiah 43.2). Of this we can surely testify.
The girls and I can really say that during and after the break-in the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, has guarded our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus in a remarkable way. Recently we were also reassured from the Psalms that we can go to God with our fears and he will deliver us (Psalm 34.4). The perspective of eternity has been made more real for us, knowing that God is keeping us for that day when there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. What strong comfort it is to realise that we have nothing to fear, nothing to lose, if our eternal security is guaranteed in Christ. Jesus said, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live’.
This incident has made us more conscious of reaching out to all those who do not have eternal security in Christ. Any amount of earthly security or safety without Christ is merely an illusion. ‘For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?’ (Mark 8.36).
