The Machete

Before I left on my mission my brother gave me some advice that was something that really pertained to my mom. He told me that out in the mission field I would have experiences that could at times be a little unsafe or in other words, experiences that would make a loving mother worry. I knew that being away for 2 years in a foreign and potentially dangerous country my mom would naturally worry about me. Not wanting her to worry more than necessary my brother told me not to write in my letters anything bad or dangerous that had happened to me that would scare my mom. This being said I had many experiences in Brazil that would have frightened my mother but she never heard about them until I was safely back at home. One of those moments I can remember perfectly to this day. I was working in a city in Brazil called Itabuna. Itabuna itself was a very dangerous city and actually had the highest murder rate amongst teenagers in the entire country. In the midst of all the shady areas and danger I never once felt in danger. On a religious side note I knew what I was doing was for the good of God and through this God would protect me as long as I was doing what I was supposed to. Well one day I was working in the hot afternoon sun in one of the many poor neighborhoods in Itabuna with my companion. We knocked on a door hoping to share a message of the church with whoever was inside. A very small and middle aged woman opened the door. Her face seemed to have a permanent sad and worried look on it. She let us into her house and we sat in the front room on opposite couches ready to visit with this woman. Right away it was easy to tell this woman didn't like contact with other people and seemed very tense. She would only stare at the floor and speak very softly and quickly. She was on edge and kept looking at the doors and windows. It was very obvious something was wrong with this woman. After talking to her and showing her we were here to help she opened up a bit. She explained how she lived in the house we were in with her abusive alcoholic husband. Not long after telling us this the front door busted open. A tall skinny man came bursting in yelling right away at this woman, her husband. He was instantly angry and I felt very sorry for the relationship that this woman was in. When the man busted through the door it took him a moment in his rage to realize that me and my companion were sitting on the other side of the room. He saw us and for a split second seemed startled but that quickly turned into madness. He drew a long and very sharp machete from his side, held it up in the air and then brought it down to my face pointing it centimeters from my nose yelling at us to get out of his house. I was more than happy to obey his commands not know how crazy he was or what he would do to me with that machete if I stayed any longer. Me and my companion grabbed our backpacks and scurried out the door with the angry machete man behind us. We got out onto the street a little startled at what had just happened. A few moments late the man left the house and quickly went down the opposite way down the road. After that the woman we had been talking to came out and brought me my Bible that I had left on the couch in the midst of all the commotion. She apologized and I could see the hurt in her eyes. As she quietly returned back to her house and shut her door. We continued on our way but that day has never left my memory. I remember exactly how I felt, an angry and crazy man had held a sword to my face and I felt perfectly calm....the entire time I just had a thought in my head and a feeling in my heart that no matter what, I was going to be just fine and nothing bad was going to happen to me. It was a very strange situation but I can take positives out of it, a natural human being feels threatened or fear when a weapon is placed at their face, but only a God can give you the strength not to let it bother you and get out of a situation like that perfectly calm with no worries. Without the power of God there's no telling how many times I could have gotten into some sort of dangerous situation in my mission that would have resulted in terrible results....but only because of God I was always safe and to me this will always be a perfect example. I can also take from this story how glad I am I was raised in a home with a father that loved my mother and would never hurt her. I saw a lot of broken homes like this one on my mission with drugs, alcohol, abuse and ruined relationships. It was hard seeing people like this but made me so much happier knowing how well I had in in my house with both my parents.