Gunman at my window
One day I was in my house when I noticed a man walking around the outside of the house. He was rough looking and had a gun. I instinctively hid and my mother and I slowly closed all the windows that he hadn’t yet reached. They were wooden louvers so once they were closed he couldn’t see in. We hid crouched down not sure what to do. We were afraid to make any noise but were completely on our own. We hoped that he was cutting through our garden to get into our neighbours and from there into the next road. He wasn’t.
My mother decided to tiptoe into the lounge (which had glass windows that he could see through) while I tried to watch where he was through a crack in the window. He was walking around the back of the house slowly and confidently checking all the windows trying to push them open so that he could see in. See us! He definitely wanted to get inside our house.
My mother called the police while I watched, listened to my pounding heartbeat and prayed an endless repetitive prayer “Please help, please help, please help”.
What seemed like an age after, but was probably just a few minutes later the police arrived silently and my mother opened the door to them. Then they came in and locked the door behind them so they would be safe while watching him too!
So there we all were locked inside and terrified. The police said they weren’t going to go outside as they didn’t want to get shot, my mother said they should at least do something and so they did – they watched him too.
3 terrified adults not knowing what else to do but watch and one teenager new to church still praying “please help, please help, please help”.
Just as suddenly as he arrived the gunman left and never returned.
I believe God did help because the danger was real. You see a few months later the neighbour who lived behind us was shot and paralysed for his motorbike. We assumed it was the same gunman and that he had been using our house to look into our neighbour’s garden. My mother had warned our neighbour many times to be careful because his new powerful motorbike would attract thieves. Although he put a chain on it being new to the island he didn’t really understand. I thank God he kept us safe and although I’m sad that my neighbour was shot I am glad that he lived through it and managed to live his life without bitterness afterwards.