I thought I was going to die…

I would’ve never thought I would be in this type of situation. To have everything stripped from you and feel so helpless is a feeling that no one should ever have to feel. As the rifle was pointed at me less than two feet away, I thought my life was over.

Earlier that day, I attended a work event at the lake which was about two hours away from where I live. After we got back into town, I got in my car to drive home. Now to get home from the place we met at, I have to take these back country roads. In some parts of these back roads, there’s no phone service.

I take a wrong turn, and once I noticed that the street didn’t look familiar, I try to turn around. As I was turning around, my car gets stuck. As I’m trying to get my car out, my battery dies. What are the odds that all of this is happening at once?!

I now find myself in an area with no phone service, its dark, and there are no street lamps in these back country roads. I tried to call out, but none of my calls would go through. For some odd reason, the only call I was able to make was to my mom. I quickly let her know that I was lost, my car got stuck, and my battery died before my phone went out.

When I was speaking to my mom, I was freaking out because I felt so helpless. I didn’t know what to do. It was getting dark, and there were no lights around. Just picture a scene from a scary movie, where there was a girl lost in the middle of nowhere, pitch black outside, with no phone service. That was me!

After I calmed myself down, I thought to myself I can’t do anything right now. It’s dark outside; I can’t walk anywhere, so I locked myself in my car and decided to wait it out until there was light outside. I prayed, evaluated my life, prayed some more and evaluated my life some more. I was so scared; I just wanted it to be daylight already.

Around 3:30 am I see a truck pass by. The truck turns around and flashes his lights at my car. At first, I was happy someone came by, then it quickly set in, this person may not be a good person. This person gets out of his truck and starts yelling at me to get out of my car. I look through my back window and see he’s walking to my car with a rifle pointed right at my car. He keeps yelling at me to get out of the car, or he’s going to shoot. I think to myself, he’s probably going to shoot through my car, so I might as well try and see who the shooter is, and hope for the best because these may be the last moments of my life.

I finally open the door and he’s right by my door with his rifle pointed at me. I have tears rolling down my face, and he’s still yelling at me to get out of the car. I can barely talk because I’m freaking out, and the only thing I can conjure up to say is “I can’t, I’m scared.”

This man doesn’t care that I’m scared or crying, he’s still yelling at me to get out of the car. He asks me if there is anyone else in the car and I tell him no. He makes me open up all my car doors with the gun still pointed at me, just to make sure, I’m alone. At this point, I still have no clue, if this guy is going to kidnap me or kill me.

After he notices no one is with me, he asks me what am I doing out here alone. I tell him the story of getting lost, the car getting stuck, battery dying and not having any phone service to call for help. I think at this point I think he realizes I’m harmless. He tells me to get back in my car, and he’ll be right back. I can hear him talking to someone else, but I don’t have any idea who he is talking to.

When he comes back, he says, “I’m going to try to get you out of here, but I’m happy that it was me who found you and not someone else who wasn’t so nice.” He was able to get my car out and even jumps it for me. He then tells me I can follow them back since they live about 10min away from me. We exchange numbers, and they have since been calling me every other day to check on me.

Once my service came back on, I received tons of voicemails and text messages from those who were out searching for me, those trying to locate me, or those who were praying for me. I have to give God all the glory that I’m still alive and able to write this blog to you.
In my spirit, I know this had to happen. Could it have been avoided? Yes! But… It happened, and God will still get the glory from it! I gained a new perspective and learned some valuable lessons that I will share.

1. Always tell someone where you are going. I have since downloaded an app, so those close to me know where I’m at all the time.
2. Surround yourself with people who care about your well-being. I had people searching for me for hours. So… if people don’t want to be in your life, don’t chase them! Make room for those who will go searching for you, when you’re missing in action.
3. Going through this made me realize that nothing really matters more than the call of God on my life. My calling could have been forfeited and if something would’ve happened to me, “Braveheart” would be no more. There are still so many people who need to hear my testimony and know the love of God.
4. It made me realize that as God is transitioning me into a new season, I need to let go of some things. I can’t take old summer clothes into my new winter season.
5. As bad as it sounds, I now know what it feels like to have a gun pointed at me in close range, and feeling like I’m about to lose my life. This makes me look at life and people in my life in a different light. I had to experience and feel this because, at some point, I’ll have to tell someone “I know what that feels like.” I can add it to my many “Braveheart” victories!

It seems that my relationship with God got so much closer; I can hear his voice so clearly.

I would never wish this upon anyone, but I know it had to happen. My mom told me that someone praying for me said there were angels all around my car, another person praying said: “don’t worry she will be in contact soon.” So, my life was covered, I didn’t know this until after the fact, but God still gets all the glory for bringing me out of yet another life-threatening situation. God is sooooo good!

Psalm 91:11 “For he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go.”