Bonus Talk: "Experiences as a Hostage in Haiti" by Sam Stoltzfus

The one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him, and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. All right, well, good morning everyone and welcome to Strength to Strength. It is 6 o'clock here this morning and it's time to get started.

My name is Glenn Martin and I live in Massachusetts. I'm part of a small fellowship there and I'm also a part of the Strength to Strength team, so thank you for joining us this morning. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Strength to Strength, we host live meetings like this every other week where we have an invited guest to share.

Today is actually an off-week Saturday, but we decided to host this as a bonus talk this morning to give an opportunity to hear from Sam about this amazing testimony of God's grace. So this morning we have with us Sam Stolzbuus. Sam was among the 17 missionaries serving in Haiti under Christian Aid Ministries when they were kidnapped and held for two months. So good morning, Sam.

Glad to have you with us. Good morning, Glenn. I'm happy to be here with Strength to Strength this morning. Thank you, thank you. And so Sam is joining us from his home. He lives in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He has served three years in Haiti and during that time he has become fluent in the Haitian language of Creole.

This morning Sam will be sharing his story of their captivity. So before that, we're going to begin with a word of prayer. And Bryant, are you with us?

Yes, I am. All right. And Bryant, if you would lead us in prayer, that would be great. Man, let's pray. Kind Heavenly Father, we come to you here this morning thanking you, Lord, for your love and your mercies.

And Father, we thank you that we know that you are with us. We think of those beautiful words of Emmanuel, a prince of peace, counselor, a mighty father.

This idea that this government will be on your shoulders and there will be no end to peace. And this morning, maybe in a special way, we're celebrating that, this incredible understanding of you coming to this earth as a vulnerable baby and entering into the sin of this place to rescue us, to rescue humanity back to yourself.

And Father, you've given us a mission to take this mission on, the one that you started of seeing reconciliation happen in the world. And Father, this process of reconciliation sometimes takes us into places that are very risky, but we realize it's the least that we can do because of what you have done. And so this morning, Father, we're hearing a story of a brother, of other brothers and sisters who were striving to follow your ways and bring peace on earth, goodwill to men through their work in Haiti.

And Father, through that, they experienced some really hard things. But Father, we know that from what I've heard, that you showed up and blessed them, and that does not surprise us, Lord, because you're here. The angel of the Lord encamps around those that fear him. And so Father, this morning, Lord, I ask a special blessing on our brother Sam as he shares. Father, that you would just fill him with your Spirit, Lord, that you would guide him, that he would just share those things that you want him to share this morning, Father, and that these words would fall on good, soft ground, and that through this time here this morning, that your kingdom would come in new and fresh ways in my heart and in our hearts, Lord, and that your kingdom could be advanced a little bit farther.

So guide and direct us, Lord, in this time. And I ask, Father, a special blessing on our brother and the others that have experienced this, Lord, that you would give them just peace of mind. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen.

Thank you, Brother Bryant. So again, welcome to all of you. If you are using Zoom this morning, we encourage you to turn your camera on so we can see your face. Sam will be sharing with us now when he is complete. We are planning to have a question and answer period. So if you have questions as we go along, just keep those questions until the end.

And at that time, we'll open it up for your input and your questions for Sam. So again, welcome Sam, and the time is yours. Thank you, Glenn. Good morning. I just want to greet everyone in Jesus' precious name this morning. I count it a privilege to be here on Strength to Strength, and I desire for the Lord to take control. Pray for me. I'm not used to having these Zoom calls, but I trust God can take control.

Acts 17, verse 28 says, "For in him we live and move and have our being." As certain also of our own poets have said, "For we are his offspring."

My name is Sam Stolzbuus.

Samuel Stolzbuus. I am known as Sam Stolzbuus.

Yeah, I'm from Lancaster County. I was first called to Haiti in August of 2016, and I served there from August of '16 till March of '19, 2019. And then I came home for about two years, and the Lord I terminated, and then the Lord, about two years later, the Lord called me back to Haiti in a very clear way, in a very powerful way.

So this year, I actually went back to Haiti on the last day of February and was there. Well, I was back, I think, two times. One time was for a short furlough, and the other time was for my grandma's funeral.

But other than that, yeah, I'm back now since the kidnapping the Coast Guard flew us back to Haiti. So just thought I'd give a little introduction there. If you have an opportunity to come to visit us here in Lancaster, I'd love to meet you.

Maybe give me a little bit of time. But we do have a Christian library here. It's been a passion of mine.

It's open to the public for the local community here. There's about 4,000 books. We started that project back in 2016, about six years ago, five, six years ago. So just a little introduction there on myself.

I'm not sure how to start on a one-hour Zoom call. Some of you have already heard my testimony, the one I shared at church almost a week ago, last Sunday. And I would encourage you to just listen to that. I'm going to try to cover new material, at least some new material, and just, yeah, see what the Lord has for us here.

So I'm going to just take the time to read Acts 17, verse 22 to 31. And one thing that Bryant said was, "Don't spend a half hour talking on Psalms 23 or something like that." But I feel like I want to cover—I have so much ground to cover—but just pray that I would share what the Lord wants me to share this morning.

Acts 17, verse 24. God that made the world and all things there, and seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands. Neither is worship with men's hands as though he needeth anything.

Seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things, and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord if happily they may feel after him and find him, though he be not far from every one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being as certain also of our own poets, as said, for we are his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone graven by art and man's device.

And the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent, because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead.

And one thing that is certain, sin has always cost the price of blood. During the Old Testament time, sin, the children of Israel were commanded to bring in a sacrifice, a spotless lamb. But what that did, it only covered—it was like a covering. It was like a Band-Aid on sin. Sin has always cost the price of blood. And Jesus, God sent his only son, Jesus, to the earth to show us a better way, to come and live as our perfect example, as the perfect sacrifice for sin. Jesus died on the cross for our sins. And now in Jesus, as far as the east is from the west, so far he removed our transgressions.

So that gets me excited. The veil in the temple was rent. It was split in two. And there's historical sources that say that that veil, separating man from the holy of holies, it could have been as high as 30 feet and as thick as four inches. That veil, there was a veil separating man from the holiest of God. Only the high priest could go in there once a year as an intercession.

But when Jesus said, "It is finished on the cross," that veil was rent in two, separating man from God, separating man from the holiness of God.

Some people speculate that this veil was so thick that two tractors pulling in opposite directions could have not torn that veil. That's the God that we serve. God has paid the price.

I believe when Jesus was hanging on the cross, Satan thought that he had scored a big victory. This totally backfired on Satan. Satan thought, "I've got him now. I've got the king of glory hanging on the cross."

The victory that Satan thought he was winning wound up being the very thing that would save the world from their sins. The people, all men who come to Jesus Christ, save them from their sins. And you know what? Through this experience, I can testify that Satan is making the same mistakes today.

When we were kidnapped, I believe that Satan was thinking that he had scored a victory, never realizing that the name of Jesus would spread all through the world, through the news media.

God has three attributes that Satan does not have. God is omnipotence, meaning all-powerful. This means God can do what he wants. It means he is not subject to physical limitations like man is. God's power is infinite or limitless.

Omniscience means all-knowing. God is all-knowing in the sense that he is aware of the past, the present, and the future. Nothing takes him by surprise. His knowledge is total. He knows all that there is to know and all that can be known.

Omnipresence means all-present. This term means that God is capable of being everywhere at the same time. It means his divine presence encompasses the whole of the universe. "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves."

What does it mean to be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves? I'm still contemplating that question myself.

I'd love to hear from some of the audience, but maybe you can give some comments on what you think it means to be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves in the midst of wolves.

The importance of biblical modesty. I can't stress that enough. So I feel like I should just get into the kidnapping a little bit here.

Yeah, we were heading to an orphanage. We had the plans. And like I mentioned, you're going to need to listen to the audio from last Sunday. I think it's available on Strength to Strength if you want more of that info.

We were heading to the orphanage. On the way to the orphanage, we noticed there were some hot areas. There was a little bit of gang activity, but we didn't really see many gangsters on the road. And it's common in Haiti. It's very common. The political situation is not very good in Haiti at this time, especially. Back when I first got there, there was a lot of UN activity. The UN, United Nations, had a mission to Haiti.

And so there was much more of a sense of security in the area of police and military power, especially. But during the two years and seven months of my first term in Haiti, there were three times, three different occasions where the vehicle I was driving got stoned.

People threw rocks at the vehicle. Yeah, just I don't have time to get into that. But so the political situation just is not very good in Haiti. And I knew that going back. And in July, I believe it was, the president was assassinated. And so it was just ever since then, they've been trying to, I guess, gear up for elections, but that has not been possible. I'm not sure what all is involved in the politics of that.

So yeah, we're heading to the orphanage. We had a good time at the orphanage. We're heading back now. We wanted to stop in at Tin Village. Tin Village is a place where they sell unique Haitian souvenirs.

So we're on our way about 10 or 15 minutes. And we see this ambulance parked across, blocking about half of the road, the one lane. And it was literally an ambulance. Yes, it was. I think it was an ambulance the gang had stolen.

So we see gangsters running down the road towards us. And initially, my first reaction was, "Oh, no. This is the Haitian police, the national police."

Soon I realized, "No, it's not. This is the gang that we heard so much about." I was never expecting to be kidnapped in Haiti. Robbed all the time, no problem. Kidnapped. I had never heard of Americans being kidnapped.

So the gangsters were running down the road. And suddenly we realized, "Oh, we need to swing a U-turn here. This is not good." I was sitting all the way in the back of the van. The ladies were farther front.

Dale, who is the warehouse manager and the med program director, was driving. And he was also assigned this orphan program. It's just a very small program in Haiti.

So Wesley, the mechanic, was sitting beside Dale. Dale swings a U-turn. And now we're heading back down south again. The gang is hot on our case, but I thought, "Okay, great. We're free. This is good." So we're speeding down the road. The gangsters are overtaking us on the left. They start pulling around us. And I'm thinking, "Great. They're going after someone else. This is it."

They pull around us and suddenly, "Ouch." Stop right in front of us. We nearly T-boned them. There's a bunch of gangsters in the back. And suddenly we're looking down the barrels of assault rifles, M16s, AK-47s. I don't know what they had. Big guns.

And our hearts are pounding.

So we're just crying out to God, "Lord, help us." They motion for us to turn around. We turn around and we're thinking, "Thank you, Lord. Praise the Lord. We're free." We thought maybe they saw us. We didn't know what was going on. Maybe they saw we're Americans, we're white people, Caucasians. We're good to go. I'd never heard of Americans necessarily being kidnapped in Haiti.

So now we're heading north again, the direction we want to be heading. And I believe they moved that ambulance a little farther south. And they stop us again, a bunch of gangsters on the road. And now they're where they had the ambulance parked. They're in line of a side street.

And they motion for us to take the road to the right-hand side. Oh, my heart sank. We turned off on that road and in front of us was a box truck, so we just stopped there. So they're back and forth.

They told us, "Guns, give us your guns."

We don't have guns. We serve the Lord. We have a power greater than guns. "No, give us your guns." Sorry, we don't have any guns to give you.

Okay, well, then just wait here. So we waited probably 10, 15 minutes. And they were back and forth. Gangsters would walk up, look at us, look in through the windows. And all the time, we're just praying.

So they take us around the corner. After a while, we start moving. And at that point, they thought we're not going to follow all their commands and wishes. So some people ran up. The road widened a little bit, so we could have probably swung around them, whatever, not followed their prompts. So they were worried about that. And they ran up from the ambulance behind and opened the door, pulled Dale out of the vehicle, slapped him across the face, grabbed Dale and put him in the back of the ambulance. And we're saying, "Lord," we're crying out, "Lord, save Dale.

Lord, save Dale."

Oh, we were afraid for Dale.

They took us to a big open parking lot,

lined the vehicles all in a row.

And for the next half hour to an hour, we were sitting there. Maybe, I don't know how long it was, probably about an hour. And just sizing us up, checking us out, trying to decide what can we do with a group of 17 Americans.

They were robbing us intermittently, just very low-key. It was so confusing. I didn't know through all this what exactly is happening to us. So after a while, they—oh, I missed the point of, yeah, the wild ride that we took to the parking lot. It was crazy. It was a very wild ride, the wildest ride of my life, I believe, especially in a 15-passenger van.

So yeah, we're back in the parking lot. Pretty soon, they jump in and we start moving again. I'm thinking, "Great. We're going to be all right. They'll set us free."

We drove up to a dead end. We got to a dead-end road. And on our left-hand side is a house and a little bit of a bigger building—a Haitian hut and a bigger building. And later on, we found out that the big building was called the Devil's House.

They called it the Devil's House. I don't recall ever really seeing them going inside that house. It was like it was a haunted house or something. I don't know.

So now we're there. They opened the doors again, and they're still trying to figure out what can we do with these people. So pretty soon, they demanded all of our cash, all of our phones. We handed them over. I had told the group, "You know what? These men are armed. Don't try to mess around. If they try to take our belongings, just hand it over. Don't worry about it. Give it over." So we gave them all of our cell phones and handed everything over, all of our cash. We were very grateful. They didn't take all of our wallets with our IDs and credit cards and everything.

But they demanded all the cash.

Pretty soon, they say, "We're trying to figure this out. What is going on here? What do they want?" And by this point, I was wanting answers. This is, I believe, a couple of hours later, a couple of hours after they had taken us off the road.

So I was the one who knew more Creole, having lived there for over three years. And Wesley was the second one who knew the most. He lived in Haiti for a little over a year, I believe.

We're wanting answers, and I decide it's time to start talking.

So I kind of came out of my little corner in the back of the van, and I said, "Hey, what's going on? We need an explanation here." And at that point, I said, "You took everything we have. You took our money. You took our cell phones. What more can you take?

Can you just please, please just let us go. We'll be all right. Everything will be okay." "No, no, no, no. We can't do that. Give us $3 million.

$3 million. We don't have $3 million to give you. I'm sorry. We don't have $3 million. Give us $3 million, and we'll let you go." "No, we don't have $3 million. We work for a mission. We're working for the Lord. This is God's money. We don't have 3 million of God's dollars to give to you."

"Okay. Well, then you're staying here. You're not going anywhere." So at that point, they start taking the girls out of the van and standing them in front of the Devil's House. And I thought we're all filing out, but suddenly it started becoming evident to me that they want to keep the rest of us men in the vehicle. Oh, my heart. Oh, the fear. Oh.

I said, "Get out of the van. Everyone out of the van. Get out of the van. Let me out." And we all—there was no stopping us. We all got out of the van. I went around. I stood first in line.

Our hearts were pounding. We didn't know what was going on. We stood in the line like a group of people they were going to execute.

And I didn't know what was going to happen.

We were singing. We were praying. We were crying out to the Lord.

They got their phone and started taking a video down the line. They said, "Hush the singing. Hush the singing." We still kept singing as much as we could there. They said, "This is a final video for this group of people."

"A final video? Okay. Are you going to kill us? Just take us out right here?"

Still didn't know what was going on. They had a small room in the house. The house was a two-room house. They had a small room. Inside the room, I saw a mattress. There were sheets in there covering the mattress and the floor.

And when we first pulled into there, they took out two captives who were tied hand and foot to free the room for us. And so after a while, we're standing there. They motion me, "Get in the room." I'm thinking, "What are you doing with me? Why are you telling me?

I thought I was going in there by myself." I'm thinking, "Oh, no. Now they're going to start splitting up our group." So I went into the room. And pretty soon, I looked behind me and I realized with relief, "Oh, okay.

We're all going into the room. Everyone's coming." We filed into the room.

They shut the door. And now we're all in the room together. Praise the Lord. Finally, a little bit of relief. Finally, we could just kind of start relaxing. But my chest was tight. There was finally a little bit of relief from we were all in there. We're all together. God has kept us safe thus far. And now we know for sure we're kidnapped. There's no doubt in our minds.

So later on that evening,

the gang leader came and he said, "Give us the phone number for your boss. We need to call your boss. Tell him that we're kidnapped." We made the phone call. I said, "Barry." He said, "Sam, are you all together? Are you all right?" I said, "We're all together. We're doing okay.

They have us kidnapped here. They're asking for ransom." The gang leader took the phone. He said, "Give us $17 million. You don't have much time. We're going to kill these people. If you don't bring the money, bring the money quick." If I'm not mistaken, he said, "You have 24 hours. Bring us the money."

And Barry, our boss, said, "Don't forget these are God's people that you have on your hands. We don't have God's money to give for ransom."

And at that point, he walked away with the phone, still talking to Barry.

So through the whole process, we tried to be very careful, especially with the girls. We tried to protect the girls. And I just want to touch a little bit on biblical modesty. Biblical modesty is such an important thing, such a, I think, a neglected thing in a lot of our churches today.

I'm telling you, if those girls would have not been dressed modestly,

I think the temptation would have been so much greater for those guards and for the gangsters who kept us there the whole time. God protected us, but we tried to do our part in protecting the girls. The second day, the next day, there was a man by the name of Mackenson. We found out later he's—we think he's the witch doctor for this gang. He brought a bag of clothing, and he said,

"Here, here's a bag of clothes. When you shower and stuff, you can change into these clothes." And he said, "Have all the girls come and change into these clothes. Try them on, make sure they fit and everything."

And he wanted to have them change into immodest clothing so they would be more vulnerable, more open so the guards and himself could lust on the girls.

And I said, "No." I assumed. I didn't even check to see what was in the bag. I said, "No." Yeah, he said, "Yeah, come on. Have them come and put on the clothing." I said, "No, absolutely not." I said, "Listen, later on, we can take a look at the clothes." I just assumed they were immodest. I didn't even take a look at them.

He said, "Okay."

But it really took some—I really had to tell him off. I said, "No, this is not going to work."

Later on, we looked into the bag of clothes. And yes, they were very, very immodest clothing. Some of us men wound up wearing those clothes, wearing the lady clothes. And the girls—so what would happen? They would bring us bathing water, shower water. We had bucket showers. Our toilet was a squat pot. So we would shower with this—I believe it was creek water. I don't know where they stream from a stream. I don't know where they got the water.

We would fill up a five-gallon bucket and use a small dipper to dip out water and just—we would water down and soak down and then rinse off, basically. That was the process of all of this.

The first few days, especially, we got—the first week, we got mosquito bites, fire ant bites. Oh, the ants were terrible. They would crawl up your pant legs during the night and the fire ants and just bite you all over your body. The baby, the 10-month-old baby, by the time we left, had ant bites all over her. So what would happen to some of us, not everyone? We would scratch the ant bites.

And this water had what they called meekwolves, microbes, I'm assuming. And I guess they were little worms or something. The water was not—it looked clean. We couldn't see anything in the water, but it was not clean water. So we would shower with this water, and the worms would get in there. And during the night, they would just eat away at our flesh.

Just these wounds would get bigger and bigger and bigger. And they would kind of start healing over as a boil. And you'd wake up, and they'd just be pussy. They hurt you. So we'd puncture them to relieve the pressure. So the water was not good.

So the girls, after they went—during the time they would shower, they would shower and ring out their clothes, wash their clothes inside the shower room, and ring out their dresses as much as possible, try to get all the water out. And they would try to shower early in the morning.

So they would put the wet dress back on. And so they would have all day the rest of the afternoon to dry out for their clothing to dry.

And as I already mentioned, some of us men, we wound up wearing the lady clothes that the witch doctor had brought. I would wear a set of lady pants every other day that came—almost every other day—that came just below my knees and a T-shirt. And then the next day, after doing the laundry, I would wear my regular clothes. We only had our set of clothing, one set that we had on when we got kidnapped.

So the importance of biblical modesty.

Our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. We have been bought with a price. 1 Corinthians 6:18-20.

"Girls, never be ashamed of modesty."

1 Corinthians 6:18, "Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body. But he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body." And when we preach biblical modesty, often we look at the girls. But it's not just the girls. It's the men, too.

What's in the heart comes out. It's evident. And I think it's a man's problem as much or more as a girl's problem. So I don't want to minimize that. Verse 19, "What, know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

For ye are bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's."

1 Peter 3:1-7, "Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives. While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear, whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plating the hair and of wearing of gold or of putting on of apparel. But let it be the hidden man of the heart and that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price.

For after this manner, in the old time, the holy woman also who trusted in God adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husband, even as Sarah obeyed Abram, calling him Lord, whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well and are not afraid with any amazement. Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel and as being heirs together of the grace of life that your prayers be not hindered."

The hidden man of the heart, meek and quiet spirit.

So we had a lot of struggles in the gangster camp during the two months. It just seemed like the time dragged on and on. It seemed like the world had forgotten about us. We knew better than that. But we were there stuck in our boredom day after day, crying out to the Lord, "Lord, deliver us from this terrible environment." It was a ghetto. There was trash all around the compound where we were. "Lord, deliver us because of the terrible secondhand smoke we have to breathe in, the drugs, the alcohol, the perversion." They would bring in prostitutes. The music was terrible. We listened to rap music and rock and I'm not sure what all it was for two months.

We would cry, "Lord, deliver us."

But we had the opportunity to share the love of Jesus Christ. For I think it was 63 days, I believe we shared. We sang, we prayed, we preached.

My dad's sitting here behind me. He says a little bit about the bottle. So they moved us to another location.

And we did spiritual warfare like I had never done before. The children would seize up. It was like they would get demon-possessed, and we'd cry out to God. We'd say, "Lord, deliver us. Lord, find the powers of Satan. Don't let him have control over us here."

They moved us to another location, and I was standing outside praying the one morning. I was needing answers. I was desperate, crying out to the Lord. And the witch doctor came walking over in the corner of my eye, and I didn't say anything. I just looked at him out of the corner of my eye.

He reached down. He took a lid. There was a plastic bag with a bottle inside of it. He took sort of a cork and put it on the bottle. He said, "This is the devil's stuff. Don't touch it or it will bite you."

"Oh, okay."

I said, "Lord, I feel like you've called us to confront evil.

You've called us to get in the way of evil as your children." I felt like it was a direct challenge. So he walked away. I was still standing there praying for a while, just asking the Lord what to do.

Finally, I said, "Okay, I need to confront this. I have to do something since he so blatantly told me about this." I hadn't even seen this bag there.

I took the bag. I moved it out into the field a little farther, just away. I didn't know what to do. Should I destroy this? So I went back to the group. They were ready to have their morning devotional.

And I told them what had happened. And we were talking about this. I said, "Should we just destroy this bottle? What should we do?" They said, "Yeah, I think that's good." Austin was sitting there. He said,

"I think we should destroy this bottle." I said, "Do you want the honors?" He said, "Yeah, sure. I'll do it." And so we walked over there. I picked up the bottle. We said, "Satan, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus Christ.

Lord, bind the powers of Satan." And I handed the bottle, the bag with the bottle to him, and he threw it as far as he could throw it into the field. From my observation, the bottle hit the ground and burst open, and there was a red liquid that shot out of the bottle.

Praise the Lord. So we went back, and we finished our morning devotional.

And at first, I was a bit worried. I was a little afraid of what might happen.

But as the day went on, I was trusting in the Lord, and I was praying about it, and I felt at peace.

McKinson, the witch doctor, shows up that evening to—he was instructed to take off the lid during the day and put it back on during the night. He comes back, and he walks to the row of mango trees, to the last. Is ready to take off the lid of the bottle.

And he's like, "Where's the bottle? Could bid on." So he's talking to the guards in a frantic tone of voice, "Where's the bottle?

Samuel! Where's the bottle?

Could bid on."

"Oh, we threw the bottle. We nutash yetil."

"Who's yetil?"

"Yeah, yeah, we threw the bottle away." "Oh, no, no, no, no. You threw that bottle away?"

It was like Satan was becoming alive in you. The demons were just reacting, and there was a terrible battle going on.

"Yeah, we threw the bottle away."

He comes in for an attack as if satanic forces. I was ready to be beaten. I was ready to be shot. I felt at peace. I felt like going to be with the Lord is much better than anything else.

He comes in for an attack. I said, "Satan, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus Christ."

It wasn't McKinson. We don't fight against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against satanic forces.

"Oh, he." It was like a brick hit, and he stepped back. He comes in for another attack. "Satan, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus Christ." Oh, we were crying out to the Lord. I don't have much experience in spiritual warfare. I didn't know what to do, but we knew we had the Lord on our side.

This went on for, I would say, two to three hours.

I was told by, I think, both of McKinson and the chef, the camp chief, that they would beat us without stopping until they received that bottle, until we told them where this was, where we had thrown it. They tried looking down the hole of the squat pot. They went out there and they looked, and they didn't find it in there. It wasn't in there. They told me, "We're going to beat you without stopping until we find this." The chief of the camp pulls out his pistol. He said, "Samuel, do you know what this is called? This is called a gun.

Do you know what guns can do?" I said, "Chief, I'm not afraid of your gun. Go ahead. Kill me. I'm not afraid." Oh, they were powerless. They were powerless. God was on our side. We were praying. We were crying out to the Lord. We were standing together.

So the ladies wound up going into the house, but they were praying and crying out to the Lord, and we thought this was surely going to be an all-night ordeal. They came.

Yeah, I thought I was going to lose my life that night, but the Lord was faithful. And after a long time, we were able to go into the house. But after we were in the house, they were still coming in and asking us to show them where this bottle is. They said, "This is the equivalent of you destroying a Bible. You've destroyed our Bible or something down that line." I don't know what it was for.

I still don't know what it was for, but it was satanic and it was evil. And we thought we need to, as Christians, we need to confront this evil. So they were dumb enough to say that you've destroyed our power.

Yeah, they thought we had destroyed their protection or something.

So unity is a powerful thing, brothers and sisters.

All along, I was encouraging an escape. A lot of us were agreed to do an escape. We knew the Lord had to be in it 100%. Nothing more and nothing less. But I believed in the power of God to help us escape.

And God did help us escape through a whole progression of miracles. He took us out of there. And I see finally we came together in the power of unity and prayer. It took us two months. I can't believe it took us that long. But God had us there for a reason. I think it was in his timing as well.

If we would have been delivered just like that, I don't think at least one of those—so there were two of the captives, two captives during the time we were there that I believe accepted the Lord as their Savior through our witness and testimony during the time we were there.

Eventually, after three weeks, we were moved from the second location back to the original location. And there there were a few captives they brought in late one night and beat them. And during this time, I was in a terrible frame of mind. I was wanting to get out of there. We were crying out to the Lord, and I just didn't feel like I had any more power to witness or to share the love of Christ. I was dry. We didn't have any Bible to read.

And the one night, like I mentioned, they brought these captives in and beat them. And the next morning, I thought, "I have to reach out to these men." But I said, "Lord, we've been preaching your word for all this time." I don't know if it was 40 or 50 days by then or what, but there's really not been much of response. We've preached, we've sang, we've shared your love.

And Lord, you're going to have to just revive me and help me if you want me to talk to these men. I just didn't feel like I had it in me anymore. And I repented of that.

I think the first day they were there, I took them bags of water, and they had to open it because they were hog-tied, tied behind their back. And I squirt the water in their mouth, and they were very thankful, very grateful.

I don't think I said much about the Lord the first day. I did mention Jesus or something like that. And the next day, I just prayed, "Lord, I'm sorry. I'm ready to try to be your hands and feet. I want to share the gospel with these men." But God, everyone just hasn't listened, and I must have felt like Jonah.

But one of the next days, I grabbed my Flambeau Verité, which had proved very valuable. We were very grateful to have this version of the Flambeau Verité in camp.

This was about the only spiritual encouragement as far as literature, and we had some tracks, but this Flambeau has become very special to me. It's a Creole version of the Torch of Truth. It has a powerful testimony. The title on there is Yonwoz Kolebla, a White Rose. And it shares a testimony in there of a girl who was planning to commit suicide.

And a pastor found her there and reached out to her, and she got converted. A very powerful—she had run away from home, was going to commit suicide, lived in a life of sin, and a very powerful testimony. And I read that story and some Bible verses to the captives while we were there. And the one, it just reminded me of the thieves on the cross.

The one was proud and arrogant, but the other had a humble heart, a tender heart.

After I read the story, he bowed his head. He didn't pray out loud, but he prayed numbingly.

And afterward, he said, "Amen." And oh, the joy on his face. The joy of coming to Jesus. The joy of experiencing salvation.

Praise the Lord.

So the next few days, we tried to disciple him. We tried to share more with him until the time we were ready. I have to move on. I think my time is about up, but I'm not through. Glen, are you going to give me a little extra time this morning? Yes, sir. No, that sounds great. Just continue going.

Okay. Thank you. I'll try to move through as quickly as possible. Ask, seek, find, and knock. Jesus, the teachings of Jesus Christ. Matthew 7:7-11.

Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth. And to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. For what man is there of you whom, if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him?

God is willing to give good things to those who ask him, to those who put their faith and trust in him. I don't have much time to cover the details of escape. I'm going to just say there was a whole progression of—to us, they were big miracles. They were a big deal. And I'll let you listen to the message that I—the talk that I gave last Sunday.

But I want to talk about faith. Is the faith that Jesus told us we need to have—is that a big faith?

Matthew 18:1-6.

It takes a simple faith. It takes a childlike faith to enter into God's kingdom in the first place.

Matthew 18:6. I'm sorry, verse 1-6. At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, "Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" And Jesus called a little child unto him and sat him in the midst of them and said, "Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. For whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name, receive it. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea."

A simple faith, a childlike faith. There's a reason Jesus said in Matthew 17:20 that it takes faith as the size of a grain of mustard seed. How big is a grain of mustard seed? It's not very big. It's one of the smallest seeds in the world. What it does take, however, is a simple, trusting reliance on our Heavenly Father, allowing his will to be done and leaving the results up to him.

What is a childlike faith? Little children are simple. They're utterly dependent on others. Childlike faith is a faith that does not doubt, question, or seek explanation.