It was dark, and they were running behind schedule due to road construction in Guatemala City, but little did a group of eight mission-minded Christians from Grace Baptist Church in Halifax know that would be the least of their worries that Friday night.
Around 8 p.m. as the group was riding a bus to their mission home headquarters outside of Guatemala City, they were kidnapped, accosted and robbed.
Lisa and Kenny Conner, Steven Blosser (whose parents attend Buckingham Baptist Church in New Canton), Darlene Harrington, Joe Briscoe, Rex Elliott and John Lenzen praise God they were not injured when a car abruptly came up on their bus, and several men began firing automatic weapons.
“These men forced the bus to stop by pulling in front of it,” said Grace Baptist associate pastor Dave Cline. “They removed the driver from his seat and then took the bus to a remote location off the road before robbing them of all their jewelry and cash,” he said.
According to Cline, the thieves apparently had done this before to other unsuspecting visitors as they left the airport because they didn't bother taking credit cards that could be traced nor did they steal inexpensive costume jewelry.
“They took each one of them off the bus one by one, searched them and took all their cash and jewelry, and then they tied them up as the others looked on from the bus,” he said.
One can only imagine the fear of those aboard the bus as they watched their friends singled out and victimized, Cline said. “They ransacked everything on the bus before taking it and leaving them tied up in that remote location.”
The entire traumatic episode lasted over two hours.
According to Cline, two of the kidnapped victims had sons anxiously awaiting their arrival at the mission home.
When the missionary group failed to arrive on time and several hours passed with no communications, Adam Blosser, the college-age son of Steven Blosser, and Derek Lenzen, the 16-year-old son of John Lenzen, knew something was wrong.
The mission immediately sent out a search party which would later discover the eight still-bound missionaries in a remote location.
The bus was later found, along with the group's ransacked belongings “so they've got their clothes now,” he added.
When Cline received the call notifying him of the kidnapping and robbery, he asked several of the missionaries what was going through their minds as they watched friends, family and fellow missionaries singled out one by one, knowing they would be next.
“They thought they were going to die,” he confided. “But in the midst of those thoughts they prayed that God would save the people who were robbing them. They were all praying that this event doesn't discourage others from taking mission trips.”
As Cline prepared to host a vigil at the church Saturday night, he said prayers would be lifted up for all of the missionaries in Guatamala.
“They're are all safe now, and we're mainly praying for their continued safety, emotional and spiritual strength. This is something they could definitely be struggling with for some time. This kind of thing could have been a whole lot worse, and we're thankful to God it wasn't,” Cline continued.
“We're determined not to let this deter us from doing God's work,” he said, explaining that he along with a group of eight others were to leave for Guatemala later.
Plans call for the missionary group to go into jungle territory where they will stay in tents as they minister to people's physical and spiritual needs.
Cline said he and others are seeing first-hand just how the Almighty is working in this country.
“Last year a group witnessed in a Guatemalan village run by drug lords. The drug lords gave permission for the missionaries to share the gospel there, and one of these drug lords got saved,” Cline shared.
When this drug lord learned of Friday night's kidnapping and robbery of the Grace Baptist missionaries, he sent out “his people” to look for the robbers with specific orders not to kill or harm them, the associate pastor said.
“This drug lord wants them to hear God's word. God is definitely making a difference there,” Cline concluded.