Seeking Refuge

by Alana Terry

  At the first home, all the girls lined up to dance a traditional Filipino dance. The girls received the gifts and donations with a profound thankfulness.

  At the second safe house, only the women were allowed in, since the girls weren’t able to handle the sight of a man yet, even a godly man. The house itself was cheerful, beautifully decorated in pink, orange and a soft blue, but the girls themselves seemed joyless. Still, as the R.S.O. team members entered, the girls lined up single file and expressed their gratitude, half of them in English, half in Tagalog. No matter how much pain creased the faces of these girls, their gratitude was genuine.

  It was during this procession that Priscilla cried out.

  “Filipa?” Priscilla shook when she whispered her sister’s name, but Filipa shouted with delight. For five minutes, the sisters held each other on the steps at the edge of the common room and wept.

  “I am so ashamed of myself,” Filipa confessed to her sister.

  “My sweet, sweet sister, Jesus has taken care of all of that,” Priscilla said amid torrents of tears. “I’m going to ask them if you can come back to the States with me.”

  “Soon,” one of the counselors replied when Priscilla asked her. “We need to get her a new passport from the American Embassy, which will take a few more weeks. Until then, she will be in restorative therapy with the other girls.”

  “I will come back for you, my sister,” Priscilla told Filipa. “I’ll be the one to bring you back to America again. I promise.” She held her sister until it was time to leave.

  Before they left, the R.S.O. team members asked the safe house counselors if they could pray a blessing over the girls.

  “They may not all receive the blessing right away, but please pray, for I want to see their spirits whole again,” the head counselor said.

  Each one from the R.S.O. team prayed a blessing. When Hadassah prayed the last blessing, the tangible presence of the Lord filled the common room and a few of the girls even began to form smiles.

  As Hadassah turned to leave, one of the girls pulled her aside. “Because of you I feel like I might have a future and be able to have my own business someday.”

  “I can’t let you give me credit,” Hadassah whispered back. “God loves you, and He alone gives us the strength.”

  She now understood Dad’s teaching when he said the power to love is a reward from God in and of itself. When she looked at this girl, and all the other girls, her spirit swelled with love for them and their faces were imprinted on her heart.

  ON THE PLANE RIDE HOME, the only strong turbulence was the bickering and complaining which sprang up within the team.

  “Matthew Cho, you know better than to pull a stunt like that.”

  Apparently, Matthew had waited until 36,000 feet in the air before he told Hyun what happened on the pier.

  Matthew rolled his eyes. “I lived through it, didn’t I?”

  “Your mother is like a sister to me. How do you expect me to look her in the eye? She made me promise to look after you, to make sure nothing like this happened.” She grunted, closed her eyes and turned her face toward the window.

  “Zeke,” Priscilla whined, “I told you to wake me up when they came by with the dinner.”

  Zeke sighed and shook his head. “You looked so tired, I wanted to let you sleep.”

  “But I’m going to be starving before we land.”

  “You haven’t eaten much for days. How was I supposed to know you’d want dinner tonight?”

  Priscilla sulked and slumped her shoulders.

  Zeke huffed and shook his head again. “Do you want me to ask the stewardess to get you something?”

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  Zeke frowned, unbuckled his seatbelt and stood. “I need to stretch anyway.”

  Hadassah watched quietly as more and more of her friends began to argue.

  When they landed on US soil, Paul gathered everyone in a circle. He sounded just like his dad when he addressed them all. “We just experienced a great victory as a team; let’s not sabotage our unity any more with bickering.”

  His words had a profound effect. Around the whole group, team members turned to one another to say, “I’m sorry.” Then they gathered again to pray.

  By the time Hadassah saw Mr. Murray in the airport terminal, everyone was laughing together, praying together and doing what they could to serve one another.

  “You guys have demonstrated the full ethos of what we hoped the Lord would do through R.S.O.,” Mr. Murray told them during the group debrief in the van on the way back to the Lighthouse. “Actually, in some ways, you have exceeded our hopes. We’ll discuss any breach of protocol later—for now I want you to know how proud I am of all of you.”

  Chapter 29: Operation Patient Endurance

  SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES over the jungle east of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

  Three weeks later

  Three weeks after she arrived back at the Lighthouse, Hadassah was strapped to a static line in the belly of a C130 plane. Dressed in a jumpsuit and full gear, she was on her way to the coordinates in the Mexican jungle east of Puerto Vallarta. They had left the East Coast of the US early that morning and were on board the C130 in Southeast California right after dinnertime. Now it was coming on 10:30pm as they approached their destination. She focused on every one of Mr. Cooper’s words.

  “You will have five seconds between each jump,” he shouted over the whir of the plane engine. “Don’t forget your order: Dave, Maleek, Pedro, Matt, Hyun, Christina, Hadassah, Paul, Zeke, Tameka, then me. Five, four, three, two, go, go, Go!”

  As soon as Christina jumped Hadassah counted to five, unhooked herself from the static line and jumped. She soared down peacefully though the night air. Aside from the roaring breeze against her ears, she enjoyed all the silence. Clouds in the distance encroaching upon the stars filled her with more than a little consternation. Night jumps had always been her favorite, but she had never jumped with inclement weather on her heels.

  She pulled the cord and released her parachute then spied out all of her teammates. Dave landed in the small clearing, with Maleek, Pedro and Matthew right behind him. There were scarcely fifty yards between them. Hyun and Christina had to maneuver to avoid colliding.

  As concerned as Hadassah was for them, she had to concentrate; this was the first time she was parachuting into a jungle. And however much Mr. Cooper and Dave instructed her, she remembered little while in the air—the jump itself was too exhilarating.

  Like everyone else, she made it to the ground with only a few scrapes and bruises. They all gathered at the edge of the clearing to pray together before beginning their hike to find their liaison then head to the drug lord’s compound for Operation Patient Endurance.

  This liaison, Pablo, had only recently given his life to Christ. He had spent a considerable amount of time at this compound before his conversion, so he knew where the kidnapped victims were held. Pedro’s uncle, Pastor Jorgé, and his family were there, also several young girls and a young boy who was probably Maleek’s brother.

  The jungle, dark, thick and warm, was not at all quiet. Critters of all kinds scurried through underbrush or in treetops. Tree frogs, owls, crickets and other nocturnal creatures sang their night chorus with deafening resonance, even while the team slashed through the underbrush to make a pathway. Overhead, bats swooped back and forth through the darkness. Hadassah ducked more than once, cringing at the thought of another three mile hike through the jungle after they met up with Pablo.

  Sometime past midnight, she heard a bird call in the trees ahead unlike any she had heard so far. Mr. Cooper halted the company immediately and repeated the call into the night. It was echoed back to him.

  “Hola,” Mr. Cooper called out in a loud whisper. “God bless you.”

  “Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus,” came the reply from up in the trees ahead. Two figures jumped to the ground and met up with them in a clearing. “You must be Aaron Cooper.”

/>   “Pablo?” Mr. Cooper asked. “I thought you’d be meeting us out here by yourself.”

  “Ah, forgive me, amigo, this is my friend José, from Pastor Jorgé’s church. He came to keep me company. It’s always safer out here to travel with a friend, in case one gets bit by a spider or snake. I know the Bible says snake bites won’t hurt us, but I wanted to have a friend with me, just in case.”

  Mr. Cooper sighed. “He can come, but he will join the intercession team when we get to the compound.”

  “Before we go there, let me show you the blueprint drawings I made of the house.” Pablo took a rolled up paper out of his shirt and pressed it flat on a tree stump.

  As Mr. Cooper and Pablo poured over the amateur blueprints and the set Mr. Cooper brought with him, Hadassah hung back and strained to hear what she could of their conversation over the rumble of the distant thunder.

  “You can cut the power here,” Pablo said. “There will be about ten minutes before someone turns the generators on, since power cuts out all the time and then comes right back, and my old friend doesn’t like to waste money unnecessarily on the fuel for the generators.”

  “Are you nervous?” Matthew whispered to Hadassah.

  “Not really,” she whispered back, “more excited. I’m glad to have the opportunity to work again. How about you?”

  “I just want to make sure everyone gets out alive.”

  She looked over her shoulder and caught some of the conversation José began with Zeke and Paul. While the man chatted nervously, Paul looked at him intently, while Zeke appeared to be praying through the frustration seeping from his eyes.

  “Even the Mexican Army is afraid of this man,” José said. “He gunned down two of his own men during our church service simply because they gave their lives to Jesus; he also kidnapped several children along with Pastor Jorgé. If Pablo hadn’t told us he saw Pastor Jorgé alive, we would’ve feared him dead. But we’re thankful you’ve come. Some of these children were missionaries under our care, some of them were even orphans. And the ransom note asked for more than we’d be able to raise in a lifetime.”

  Hadassah hoped José would be able to control his nervousness when they neared the compound.

  Within half an hour the team started their trek once more while Mr. Cooper silently put the plan together. The rain hadn’t arrived, but the storm was close enough that they could see lightning all around them. Mr. Cooper had satellite footage of the house, provided by a friend in the CIA, and followed the GPS on his watch toward the location, over brambles, under overgrowth.

  He stopped a half mile from the lights in a clearing ahead. “Okay, everyone, I have formulated the plan changes. Pablo, Dave, Maleek, and Hyun, you’re going to follow me into the house to find the hostages. The rest of you, I want you to stand here, and here.” He spread out the blueprints again and pointed to the northeast and southwest corners of the compound, closest to where the master bedroom was on one side and what appeared to be the main office on the other side. “Divide yourselves as you like, but I want Christina at the head of one team and Matthew at the head of the other.”

  Matthew picked Hadassah, Paul and José to join him, while Zeke, Pedro and Tameka joined Christina.

  “Christina, take the master bedroom in the northeast, Matthew, the office on the southwest,” Mr. Cooper told them. “We’ll be going into the basement. We’ll meet at our first rendezvous point at 0400 hours. Radio silent until 0300, folks.”

  Although she was disappointed she wouldn’t be part of the rescue, Hadassah looked forward to her role, praying in close proximity for the safety of the team and for the salvation of everyone who lived or worked in the house. José told them on the walk over that the man who owned the compound prided himself on being the wealthiest drug lord in all of Mexico and he shipped over thirty metric tons of heroin and coke each month to the United States through various channels.

  “He’s a mastermind, they say,” José added. “But he hates to waste bullets.”

  “Shh,” Matthew urged as they neared the southwest corner. The power to the compound cut out just as they gathered in a circle to pray. Matthew began to employ sign language, for instruction and then for prayer. Hadassah whispered the translation to José, and then began praying herself. She tapped her prayers in Morse code with two fingers against her wrist. José, who was visibly nervous, breathing quickly and shifting his gaze all about, began to whisper in tongues, despite urges from Matthew and Paul to stay silent.

  “Pastor Jorgé always encouraged us to pray aloud,” José whispered back. “He taught us that there’s more power in spoken prayers than in silent ones.”

  “Nothing louder than the rain,” Matthew commanded. “Not tonight.” Rain fell in a light sprinkle, but grew heavier every minute.

  José nodded in agreement, but when it came his turn to pray, he whispered much louder than the sound of the rain. Hadassah’s heart pound harder and faster with each of José’s crescendos. Would they remain unnoticed until Paul’s turn? She urgently beseeched the Lord for the guards about the compound to have blind eyes and deaf ears toward their prayer meeting, toward their whole operation.

  The thunder rolled in, and with it louder rain.

  “Father,” Paul prayed when his turn came around, not as if he wanted to show off, and not as if it was only the habitual way to begin a prayer, “we ask You to bring a miracle here tonight, we ask You to release the captives from their chains, both visible and invisible. We ask You to move on our behalf. Send Your angels to war for us. Help us make it back to America with reports of how You plundered the enemy.” His whisper was quieter than the pounding rain, and Hadassah strained her ears to listen to him. “Lord, please protect us.” At his last word a loud alarm sounded, red lights flashed, shouting began and dogs barked fiercely.

  Hadassah jumped despite herself. Ten minutes have not passed.

  “Run!” Matthew commanded them. “Run to the rendezvous point.”

  He grabbed Hadassah’s hand and ran toward the trees, but Hadassah tripped on the uneven terrain and fell, landing four yards or more away from him. When she looked up, she saw three large Dobermans jumping toward Matthew. José was behind her, still within the compound, with one dog pulling him by the arm. One of the owners called the dog off José and held the frightened young man at gunpoint.

  Without forethought, Hadassah grabbed one of the sticks beside her and ran toward the dogs attacking Matthew and Paul. Halfway there, she realized she held eighteen inches of iron rebar, the kind used to reinforce concrete tubes, and in a surge of fury and fear she swiped at the hind legs of one of the dogs attacking Matthew. At its yelp, the other two dogs turned on her. She was able to protect her face, and her jumpsuit protected her skin, but the pressure from the jaws of one dog clamped her forearm. The pain threatened to make her black out. Then she heard the gunshot, and her terror ran so deep she was unable to focus. “Jesus!” she screamed into the night. “Yeshua! Have mercy on us!”

  The two dogs attacking her suddenly yelped. She looked up to see the dogs jumping upon the security guards, not to attack them but from sheer terror.

  “Get off of me!” one of the guards yelled at the dogs. “Get the witch woman,” he commanded another guard, “and that one there.” He shined his light on the figure running toward Hadassah. It was Matthew, and he stopped in his tracks with his hands up in surrender.

  “I paid more for those dogs than I ever would for you, witch woman,” the guard sneered as he dragged her roughly through the corridors. “I ought to break your legs from under you. How would you like that, eh witch woman?”

  “She isn’t a witch,” Matthew said as he was escorted just as roughly behind Hadassah.

  “What did you say?” the guard asked.

  “I said she’s not a witch. She is a woman of God who loves Jesus,” Matthew said.

  “You want to contradict me?” the guard asked, and then pistol whipped Matthew on the side of the head, causing him to collapse. “You
don’t even deserve a bullet, you Jesus freak.”

  Chapter 30: “Sir, are we in heaven?”

  THEY WERE DRAGGED TO the second basement of the house and tied to chairs alongside the other hostages. Zeke was there along with Tameka, José and two others she didn’t recognize—a girl about fourteen or fifteen years old, and a boy who looked twelve. Both of these kids’ faces were tear-stained and their bodies gaunt. After a brief glance around, the guards left and took all the lights with them.

  The room smelled dank and putrid and was filled with the sound of heavy breathing and groans.

  “Is Matt okay?” Zeke asked.

  “I don’t know.” Hadassah’s eyes filled with tears. She swallowed them. “The guard hit him pretty hard.”

  Matthew moaned. “I’m okay, just really dizzy and a little sick.”

  “You don’t sound okay,” Zeke remarked.

  “I’m Hadassah, by the way,” Hadassah said to the children in Spanish. “We came because we love Jesus and He loves you.”

  “I’m Tameka,” Tameka’s voice was as steady as anyone could muster.

  “I’m Ezekiel, or Zeke for short.”

  “I’m Matt.”

  “Hi. I’m Lucia. This is Carlos,” the young girl said in perfect English.

  Hadassah sighed. Then she took a chance—it might be the same Carlos. “Carlos, your brother, Maleek, came with us to look for you.”

  “My brother, Maleek?” The boy’s voice was filled with shock. “He came for me? I thought he didn’t love me. Where is he?”

  Before anyone could answer the boy, Lucia began to sob. “Please help us get out of here.”

  “God can help you,” Matthew mumbled. Coming from anyone else this may have sounded trite, but Hadassah could tell he still couldn’t lift his chin from his chest. “Tameka, would you sing for us?”