Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Robbery story from Steve - a little long, but worth it!

Folks – Debbie had a conversation with Steve today over the internet concerning the recent robbery in Africa, and I thought I would post some of it.  It’s quite something to read!  Keep praying for him!  He is now in New Delhi, India ministering at a leper colony and an orphanage.  He said conditions there are very difficult – over 100 degrees each day with mosquitoes and filth everywhere.  The only thing to eat is peanut butter and jelly.  Very little water.  It’ll be an interesting month!

 

[2:26:09 PM] Debbie Wright says: kind of tough when someone rips your stuff away from you with a gun pointed at you

[2:26:15 PM] Debbie Wright says: that has to be pretty traumatic

[2:26:22 PM] Steve Wright says: yeah, I was in the other room

[2:26:49 PM] Debbie Wright says: did they have you go in the big room?

[2:27:15 PM] Steve Wright says: yeah, I was joking around with Eli and Matt S when the guys came into the room and told us to leave the room

[2:27:20 PM] Steve Wright says: I thought it was a joke at first

[2:27:37 PM] Debbie Wright says: yeah, it would be hard to believe something like that was really happening to you

[2:28:05 PM] Steve Wright says: I looked over at Eli, and his hands were up, so I figured out it wasn't a joke

[2:28:21 PM] Debbie Wright says: did it kind of seem like you were in a TV show and not real life?

[2:28:32 PM] Steve Wright says: ummmm

[2:28:34 PM] Steve Wright says: I guess

[2:28:54 PM] Steve Wright says: I wasn't scared at all during, just thinking through things

[2:29:06 PM] Steve Wright says: after talking with other people, I realized how much danger we really were in

[2:29:11 PM] Debbie Wright says: did it kind of hit you afterwards?

[2:29:17 PM] Debbie Wright says: the scared I mean

[2:29:30 PM] Steve Wright says: yeah

[2:29:42 PM] Steve Wright says: several different people told us we were lucky to be alive

[2:29:46 PM] Steve Wright says: we saw their faces

[2:29:49 PM] Debbie Wright says: very true

[2:29:50 PM] Steve Wright says: that was scary

[2:30:01 PM] Debbie Wright says: I was wondering if they had masks on or not

[2:30:06 PM] Steve Wright says: later we talked with a waitress, and she told us we were lucky

[2:30:21 PM] Steve Wright says: one of my teammates told me that a lot of Americans are shot dead in Africa

[2:30:27 PM] Debbie Wright says: wow

[2:30:29 PM] Steve Wright says: anyways, I’ll stop giving you details

[2:30:32 PM] Debbie Wright says: God watches you

[2:30:32 PM] Steve Wright says: we are safe

[2:30:36 PM] Steve Wright says: yeah

[2:30:46 PM] Debbie Wright says: always has and always will

[2:30:47 PM] Steve Wright says: I kept praying through the whole thing

[2:31:04 PM] Steve Wright says: I think that might have been why I wasn't so scared

[2:31:11 PM] Debbie Wright says: yeah

[2:31:37 PM] Debbie Wright says: I don't mind the details

[2:31:49 PM] Steve Wright says: I could tell you the story if you have a minute

[2:31:53 PM] Debbie Wright says: sure

[2:31:58 PM] Steve Wright says: alright

[2:32:01 PM] Steve Wright says: so,

[2:32:05 PM] Debbie Wright says: always have a minute for you!

[2:32:23 PM] Steve Wright says: Eli and I had went out for supper, and then on the way back we stopped at this Chinese internet cafe

[2:32:51 PM] Steve Wright says: we played this shooting video game, where me and Eli were on a team, and we played against two other Chinese people we didn't know

[2:33:02 PM] Steve Wright says: so it was dark, and Eli and I were joking about

[2:33:22 PM] Steve Wright says: if people were going to jump us, we were ready and kind of wanted some action so that we could get some aggression out

[2:33:38 PM] Steve Wright says: we got back to the hotel, and just relaxing for about an hour

[2:33:53 PM] Steve Wright says: then Matt S left, and Eli and I were about to leave to see what else was going on

[2:34:25 PM] Steve Wright says: as soon as matt left, a small guy came into the room waving a gun, followed by a tall guy with a gun

[2:34:36 PM] Steve Wright says: he said, don't look at my face, and get out of the room

[2:34:48 PM] Steve Wright says: I looked him straight in the eyes and thought it was a joke

[2:35:03 PM] Steve Wright says: but then looked at Eli and saw him with his hands up, so I did the same

[2:35:12 PM] Steve Wright says: he said, go to the lobby, and get down

[2:35:40 PM] Steve Wright says: I stepped into the lobby, and he kind of twisted my arm so that I would go to the ground

[2:36:04 PM] Steve Wright says: When I was on the ground, I realized I was breathing really heavy, which was weird because it was only a few steps

[2:36:15 PM] Steve Wright says: I breathed deeply so that I could think clearly

[2:36:27 PM] Steve Wright says: then I heard a dog bark and it caught me off guard

[2:36:40 PM] Steve Wright says: I jumped, the dog was huge, and he bit at me earlier

[2:36:54 PM] Steve Wright says:  I kept thinking, God keep the dog away from me, because he could bite me

[2:37:16 PM] Steve Wright says: then the dog came right up to me and sniffed me, which was so scary, because at the same time the robbers had guns

[2:37:28 PM] Steve Wright says: He went away

[2:37:35 PM] Steve Wright says: we kept hearing threats from the gunmen

[2:37:40 PM] Steve Wright says: I’ll shoot you dead

[2:37:49 PM] Steve Wright says: don't look up, I’ll kill you

[2:37:50 PM] Steve Wright says: you will be dead

[2:37:54 PM] Steve Wright says: lots of threats

[2:38:36 PM] Steve Wright says: one guy next to me kept looking up, I thought he was going to get shot, and I kept thinking of what I would do if his blood spread over to me, pretty graphic, but that was what was going through my head

[2:39:05 PM] Steve Wright says: the guy next to me was the owner, the gunmen grabbed him, and hit him a few times, then told him to get to the safe

[2:39:30 PM] Steve Wright says: he opened it and then they took off with about $12,000 USD from one of the other guests that lived in England

[2:39:37 PM] Steve Wright says: then they left

[2:39:56 PM] Steve Wright says: Robbie, Rusty and I took off to see the girls in the other room

[2:40:02 PM] Steve Wright says: they were crying

[2:40:06 PM] Steve Wright says: they were fine though – not hurt

[2:40:13 PM] Steve Wright says: they had it much tougher then us

[2:40:18 PM] Steve Wright says: I have low battery on this computer

[2:40:24 PM] Steve Wright says: but anyway

[2:40:35 PM] Steve Wright says: the robbers thought that they (the girls) had all of the money

[2:41:00 PM] Steve Wright says: they would get the girls up and tell them to give them their money and purse, but they didn't have any because the team leaders were in a different room

[2:41:14 PM] Steve Wright says:  the gunmen didn't believe them, so they said, I will shoot someone, or something like that

[2:41:28 PM] Steve Wright says: I only stayed up for another hour, then got a shower and went to sleep

[2:41:38 PM] Steve Wright says: a lot of them stayed up the whole night

[2:41:58 PM] Steve Wright says: then I stayed with a few others at the hostel, and the others left for Pretoria until the plane ride to India

[2:42:05 PM] Steve Wright says: that’s about it

[2:42:07 PM] Debbie Wright says: wow that's quite the story!

 

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