The Modem That 'Saved My Life'
As some of you may have heard, last weekend was an interesting one to say the least. I have waited until now to write about the events in order to focus my thoughts and see how everything panned out.
To begin with, the house that Ryan, Josh, and I live in here in Nairobi was robbed last Friday. The events that took place that night were miraculous and sad all at the same time. All three of us were over at a missionary’s house for a get together of worship and fellowship. After the meeting was over, we were driven back to our house to be dropped off like we usually are not having a car and due to the danger of walking at night. I had my mind on other things when arriving home, namely the picture below
This picture is of the wireless internet modem that I borrow quite frequently from our neighbors. Nathan and Candace Roberts, a Samaritan’s Purse couple, live on the next street over from ours. We have become good friends, partly because Nathan and I both went to Piedmont. They let me borrow their modem to get online and update this blog and write e-mails. Usually I borrow the modem after they go to bed because they aren’t using it then; and then give it back in the morning. The system works pretty well…except this night I was a little worried.
We were getting back to our house at around 10PM. Knowing that the Roberts go to bed fairly early, I was worried I would not get the modem tonight due to the late hour (Candace later told me I was about out of luck in getting it that evening). So, wanting to get online that night and fear they were already in bed, I jumped out of the truck we were being dropped off in and rushed over to their street. Normally I would go inside and place my things of the day in before going over, but I didn’t want to waste any time…these decisions I have come to be ever so thankful for.
For, you see, our house is fairly protected. It is gated, barred and locked tightly. My roommates had just shut and locked the outer gate and were attempting to unlock the barred door to the house, when six Africans jumped right over our gate as soon as our ride pulled away. Since our house is so ‘secure’ there was no time at all to get into the house before several guys were already in our yard. The first assailant pulled a gun on my roommates and began searching them for money and valuables as his accomplices poured into our yard. Not satisfied with what my roommates had on them, the six men and 2 handguns forced my roommates to let them in the house to raid the rest of our belongings. Ryan, detailing his story to me later, remembers turning to Josh and saying, “I really hope Brandon doesn’t come back in the middle of this!”
Meanwhile, oblivious to the trauma my roommates are facing in our house, I am in the next street waiting for the modem. Normally, I text Nathan and he promptly comes down with the modem and I am back over to my house in only a few minutes. Yet tonight, I am waiting for nearly 10 minutes in his street wondering if he’s getting the texts I am sending. Ironically, I am chatting with the night security guard the entire time. After about 10 minutes Nathan appears at his door. I am relieved that he is not asleep yet, but still wondering what took him so long. He begins to explain that he never received any of my texts from that night. Then, a minute or two before he came down, he received all 4 texts I send him at the same time. He hurried down, wondering how long I had been waiting. We chat for a short time and I’m off running back to my house, eager to get online for the few times I am able to.
Upon reaching my gate, I find it open. Thinking it strange, I determine my roommates must have left it open for me knowing I’d be right back. Yet I turn to lock it to find the lock is gone. Now I am really starting to get suspicious and alarmed. Just then, my roommates appear at the door just as I’m shutting the gate. They look very frightened and tell me “We’ve just been robbed.” At just that moment I hear the sound of several pairs of feet running just outside our gate.
I run back into the house and we lock it up as I ask if they are ok and what they got. They tell me some things they took of theirs and then tell me…the robbers didn’t even touch my room. I run upstairs and find everything in my room as I left it…my laptop laying on my floor out in the open…my HD video camera I got for a graduation present sitting out on my floor…my wallet on my nightstand…my credit cards, passport, checkbook, cash, and all my electronics begging to be taken in my wide open suitcase. To this moment I have no idea why they skipped my room. You first come to Ryan’s room upstairs, followed by mine, then Josh’s. All they had to do was walk in and my story would be a little different now. The rest of the night was filled with AIM missionaries calling to make sure we were ok (by the way…AIM’s emergency contact system worked to perfection that night), talking with security, and overcoming the shock and fear you get when a gun is pointed at your head. Several missionaries who live near were here within a couple of minutes and we began the process of figuring out what happened and what we needed to do next.
We came to find out, the house caddy corner us across the street was robbed as well. Apparently, I came back to my house as they were robbing that house. I just had gotten inside the gate as they ran past it (the feet I heard outside the gate). I still am in amazement how and why God totally spared me from this ordeal! If I had not been so eager to get to the Roberts, if Nathan had gotten any of my texts when I sent them, if he did not receive them just when he did, or if I had not run back to my house…I could have interrupted a highly tense situation, or even run into them on the street. Both of which could have made a bad situation that much worse.
The robbers were apparently a gang from Kibera, the slum right next to our walled, gated community. We found a ladder propped up against our wall on our street with wire cutters beside it and a section of barbed wire missing from the top of our wall…showing us the entry and exit of our assailants. My roommates were obviously shaken up, but handled the situation well. We are doing much better now and many of the things stolen are being replaced. Josh lost his laptop, as did Ryan, yet his credit cards and passport were taken as well. Other electronics like cameras and MP3 players were also swiped. Josh successfully cancelled all his cards that night and will get a new passport in a few weeks. Most of Ryan’s things were insured and Josh’s belongings are easily replaced.
Yet all the praise deserves to be heaped upon God for keeping both of them safe. This incident is proof there are countless people like you praying for me. I may be sitting at another computer writing this instead of mine had it not been for those prayers. I still wonder why this happened, why I was spared, or why God works the way He does…yet his hand of protection is clearly seen through the modem GOD USED to ‘save my life.’
To begin with, the house that Ryan, Josh, and I live in here in Nairobi was robbed last Friday. The events that took place that night were miraculous and sad all at the same time. All three of us were over at a missionary’s house for a get together of worship and fellowship. After the meeting was over, we were driven back to our house to be dropped off like we usually are not having a car and due to the danger of walking at night. I had my mind on other things when arriving home, namely the picture below
This picture is of the wireless internet modem that I borrow quite frequently from our neighbors. Nathan and Candace Roberts, a Samaritan’s Purse couple, live on the next street over from ours. We have become good friends, partly because Nathan and I both went to Piedmont. They let me borrow their modem to get online and update this blog and write e-mails. Usually I borrow the modem after they go to bed because they aren’t using it then; and then give it back in the morning. The system works pretty well…except this night I was a little worried.
We were getting back to our house at around 10PM. Knowing that the Roberts go to bed fairly early, I was worried I would not get the modem tonight due to the late hour (Candace later told me I was about out of luck in getting it that evening). So, wanting to get online that night and fear they were already in bed, I jumped out of the truck we were being dropped off in and rushed over to their street. Normally I would go inside and place my things of the day in before going over, but I didn’t want to waste any time…these decisions I have come to be ever so thankful for.
For, you see, our house is fairly protected. It is gated, barred and locked tightly. My roommates had just shut and locked the outer gate and were attempting to unlock the barred door to the house, when six Africans jumped right over our gate as soon as our ride pulled away. Since our house is so ‘secure’ there was no time at all to get into the house before several guys were already in our yard. The first assailant pulled a gun on my roommates and began searching them for money and valuables as his accomplices poured into our yard. Not satisfied with what my roommates had on them, the six men and 2 handguns forced my roommates to let them in the house to raid the rest of our belongings. Ryan, detailing his story to me later, remembers turning to Josh and saying, “I really hope Brandon doesn’t come back in the middle of this!”
Meanwhile, oblivious to the trauma my roommates are facing in our house, I am in the next street waiting for the modem. Normally, I text Nathan and he promptly comes down with the modem and I am back over to my house in only a few minutes. Yet tonight, I am waiting for nearly 10 minutes in his street wondering if he’s getting the texts I am sending. Ironically, I am chatting with the night security guard the entire time. After about 10 minutes Nathan appears at his door. I am relieved that he is not asleep yet, but still wondering what took him so long. He begins to explain that he never received any of my texts from that night. Then, a minute or two before he came down, he received all 4 texts I send him at the same time. He hurried down, wondering how long I had been waiting. We chat for a short time and I’m off running back to my house, eager to get online for the few times I am able to.
Upon reaching my gate, I find it open. Thinking it strange, I determine my roommates must have left it open for me knowing I’d be right back. Yet I turn to lock it to find the lock is gone. Now I am really starting to get suspicious and alarmed. Just then, my roommates appear at the door just as I’m shutting the gate. They look very frightened and tell me “We’ve just been robbed.” At just that moment I hear the sound of several pairs of feet running just outside our gate.
I run back into the house and we lock it up as I ask if they are ok and what they got. They tell me some things they took of theirs and then tell me…the robbers didn’t even touch my room. I run upstairs and find everything in my room as I left it…my laptop laying on my floor out in the open…my HD video camera I got for a graduation present sitting out on my floor…my wallet on my nightstand…my credit cards, passport, checkbook, cash, and all my electronics begging to be taken in my wide open suitcase. To this moment I have no idea why they skipped my room. You first come to Ryan’s room upstairs, followed by mine, then Josh’s. All they had to do was walk in and my story would be a little different now. The rest of the night was filled with AIM missionaries calling to make sure we were ok (by the way…AIM’s emergency contact system worked to perfection that night), talking with security, and overcoming the shock and fear you get when a gun is pointed at your head. Several missionaries who live near were here within a couple of minutes and we began the process of figuring out what happened and what we needed to do next.
We came to find out, the house caddy corner us across the street was robbed as well. Apparently, I came back to my house as they were robbing that house. I just had gotten inside the gate as they ran past it (the feet I heard outside the gate). I still am in amazement how and why God totally spared me from this ordeal! If I had not been so eager to get to the Roberts, if Nathan had gotten any of my texts when I sent them, if he did not receive them just when he did, or if I had not run back to my house…I could have interrupted a highly tense situation, or even run into them on the street. Both of which could have made a bad situation that much worse.
The robbers were apparently a gang from Kibera, the slum right next to our walled, gated community. We found a ladder propped up against our wall on our street with wire cutters beside it and a section of barbed wire missing from the top of our wall…showing us the entry and exit of our assailants. My roommates were obviously shaken up, but handled the situation well. We are doing much better now and many of the things stolen are being replaced. Josh lost his laptop, as did Ryan, yet his credit cards and passport were taken as well. Other electronics like cameras and MP3 players were also swiped. Josh successfully cancelled all his cards that night and will get a new passport in a few weeks. Most of Ryan’s things were insured and Josh’s belongings are easily replaced.
Yet all the praise deserves to be heaped upon God for keeping both of them safe. This incident is proof there are countless people like you praying for me. I may be sitting at another computer writing this instead of mine had it not been for those prayers. I still wonder why this happened, why I was spared, or why God works the way He does…yet his hand of protection is clearly seen through the modem GOD USED to ‘save my life.’
posted by Brandon at
12:47 PM
2 Comments:
Heard about this from your mom this week. So glad you guys are ok and thankful for God's protection on all of you.
oh my goodness - no lie, God was definitely answering prayers of safety and what not! im so glad no one got hurt. that would be a lot worse.
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