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Today has been an eventful day, to say the least! It began as typical Thursday morning with the 4 older kids going across the street to the church for morning prayer @ 5:00. Jessica, Rebekah and I usually meet with Lawanda and Jenifer to walk at 6:00am. Anthony has started taking a morning walk since we've been down here. He generally picks a different child each morning, this morning it was Jessica's turn. Well, the weather report said that it was supposed to rain all day. The morning definitely looked like it could downpour any moment. The ladies altered their route to keep on the main road to keep near all the store overhangs in case the rain cut loose. Anthony, too had decided to take a "short cut" due to the rain. It turns out that they were in such conversation that he missed his planned cut off ( a choice that he has greatly regretted).
Anyway, it seems that we have been scouted for some time, at least long enough for the wrong people to realize that the adults all left early in the morning for walks. While we were gone, Aaron was quasi-napping in a hammock we put up on the porch the day before and Daniel was reading his Bible on the porch. Two adolescents crooks were up on the porch before they knew anything about it. One had a gun and approached Daniel, motioning him to keep seated and quiet. The other one walked into the house (all my little boys were sleeping on the living room floor) and started grabbing things (there was a small table right by the front door where I generally do all my computer work. Daniel stood up and the first boy started to shoot. Daniel deflected the gun and it discharged (Daniel thought it was a blank). The shot evidently scared the second one and he ran off with what he had in his hands -- Aaron's laptop computer. They both took off running. Daniel ran after them. As they were running, the two kids switched the gun and the computer. Daniel caught up with the one with the computer and grabbed him and spun him around. Meanwhile the second one, now having the gun, tried to shoot Daniel . The gun clicked 3 times (no shots). Daniel punched the one with the computer in the face (Daniel's hands are still swollen and sore from the "lemon juice" burns, so it was quite painful..) When he went to punch him again, the kid went to block the punch and dropped the computer.
Meanwhile, "gunboy", frustrated at the gun not shooting, shot again. It discharged this time, hurting no one. The blocks here are very long, probably equal to 4-5 "US city blocks". The two assailants ran to the end of the block and ran around the corner to the right. Daniel picked up the computer and went back home.
The girls, with our alternate route, were passing the end of our street just a minute or two after all this happened. We saw Mr. Duarte come running out in the street, and other gathering and figured something might be amiss, so we turned to see what was going on. Mr. Duarte had Lawanda run up and call the police. They have a policeman in the congregation, so she called him, too.
Meanwhile, Anthony and Jessica came around the corner. The same corner that the crooks had gone around just minutes earlier. (I knew his usual walking route and was wishing we had cell phones so I could have called him). Our policeman friend came right over within minutes and took off in his car around the corner to see if he could find anything. 20 or so minutes later the police arrived. They listed to Daniel's story and told him that they recommend to anyone in that type of situation to not resist, but do nothing.He said "I admire your courage, but your life is not worth a computer!" He told us that we had to report the police downtown.
Up to this point, Daniel was still convinced the gun contained blanks. Upon closer observation, there is a hole in the ceiling of the porch.
The Bullet hole. You can see where it entered on the right.
When neighbors heard the gunshots, they came out to see what was going on. Many of our neighbors are concerned about us. Some felt they knew who the kids were because they have seen them walking by here quite a bit lately. A couple offered to help with the wall today, while we had to make our appointments. From what we are learning, gunshots were commonly heard on this street before the church moved here. Most of the neighbors appreciate the safer streets they feel the church has helped bring in.
After all the "excitement" died down, Anthony gathered all our family in to pray together. We thanked the Lord for sparing Daniel and for his protection over us all. Daniel broke down a little at the end of the prayer ( we were all quite teary-eyed) as it was finally dawning on him the severity of the situation and the Lord's protection of us all.
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