Thursday, October 4, 2007

I Saw A Crime

Within the span of 36 hours, I managed to ride in a car for 12 hours, leave all 4 kids for the first time overnight, participate in a conference, witness a crime in action, make 3 phone calls to 9-1-1, and step on my blueberry bagel with raspberry cream cheese.
Chris invited me to go with him to an evangelism conference; the plan was to drop the kids off at the grandparents' house which was on the way. We were driving late Sunday night (because we had to leave after church and the conference started at lunchtime on Monday). We had maybe half an hour left out of a 4 hour trip; it was around 11:30 pm or so. The kids were asleep in the van, and Chris and I were talking as we traveled down the highway. All of a sudden, we saw by the side of the road and into one lane, a person laying on the ground with a person standing over him. "Did you see that?" Chris quickly pulled over on the shoulder, and we saw a car with the door open. I got the cell phone and called 911. After I report what we saw, Chris saw one person walk across the road and get in the car. As the man drove off, Chris followed and got close enough to get the license plate and description of the car. I called 911 again and gave them the information in case they needed it. On the other side of the highway, 3 police cars flew screaming past. Chris followed the car (since we were heading that direction anyway). But whoever was in the car knew that we were onto him; he started driving erratically. First he sped up to try to lose us, then he slowed waaay down. After a few times of this, I called 911 again to report the erratic driver. We got to our exit, and Chris made sure we weren't being followed. We turned the police scanner on to see what was going on as soon as we got in the house. The dispatcher said that they had to ask the victim about what kind of weapon was used. And she said that the last contact about the suspect was at the exit I made the last phone call. She gave the same license number; then we knew that if we had not been there, the victim could have still been lying on the side of the road. I don't know if they caught the suspect or not; I hope so. This experience has strengthened my faith in God's sovereignty. God knew that we would be driving past that stretch of highway at that exact moment. Maybe the suspect and victim knew each other, maybe it was completely random, but whatever the situation, I hope they both realize God was at that crime scene. "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good (Proverbs 15:3)."