Celebrating Three Decades… With A Bang!
December 26 was David’s 30th birthday. We planned to get together with our colleagues at 8 p.m. for cake, cookies, prayer, and worship. At 7:30, after the buffet was set and the cookies were just coming out of the oven, a co-worker called to cancel. They had already baked a birthday cake for David when they remembered it was the first night of a country-wide 8 p.m. curfew. The wife quickly brought the cake to us, returning to her own home minutes before eight o’clock.
Just a few minutes after 8, gunfire could be heard all around our home. David quickly ran in from the office, bringing the computer with him. We turned on our two way radios so we could be in contact with our colleagues, turned off all our solar lights so we wouldn’t draw unnecessary attention to our home, locked all the outside doors and retreated to our bedroom on the back side of the house, the furthest room from the street. We prayed that a stray bullet wouldn’t hit us, our car, or our solar panels.
As we waited for the gunfire to stop, we watched a recently borrowed movie. About half way through, an extremely loud bang came from the office building that sits just beside our bedroom. “What was that?” I asked. David paused the movie, turned, with wide eyes and said, “I don’t know, and I’m not going to look.”
At about 11 p.m. the shooting stopped and David was able to go to the office to call his mom for a birthday chat. He opened the office door and saw that a stray bullet had come through the tin roof and landed beside his office chair.
It was later reported that soldiers were firing into the air to both to honor the late president, and to celebrate the fact that the new president is a military man.
We were thankful there was no serious damage to anyone or anything, and we were able to reschedule David’s party for the next day.
January 4th, 2009 at 10:36 pm
Yay!! Pretty cake. Sorry about the bullet…inner city NYC, it would seem…
January 19th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
Happy Birthday! (a little late)
We are glad to hear that you were protected from any stray bullets. Technology is great. I’m glad we can keep up to date reading your blog. We are praying for your continued ministry and relationships that you build.