A Robbery Foiled in West Africa

As told by Eunice Ebuh

“Armed robbers planned their attack on the day when we usually hold the Congregation Book Study in our home. We throw our gates wide open for the brothers and sisters and interested ones. The robbers likely knew our habits and meeting time. We know for sure that they had stolen a car elsewhere and came to wait by our gate on the day and at the time of the book study.

“As it happened, the week they came was the week of the visit of the circuit overseer. Instead of meeting at our house, we met at the Kingdom Hall. After the meeting was over, there was an elders’ meeting. Normally the children and I would have gone home, but my husband, who is an elder, asked us to wait for him. He said he would not be long. So we waited.

“Next we discovered that the car would not start. The circuit overseer and my husband were not able to fix it. The mechanic we called could not fix it either.

“The children had to walk home. After a while, I went home too. I arrived at about ten o’clock. Neither I nor the children entered the compound in a car, which would have required opening the big gate.

“When I entered my bedroom, I heard a gunshot, very loud. I wondered what was happening. I tried to telephone the police, but the phone was dead. I rushed downstairs and locked the steel entrance door, then hurried to lock the middle door. I turned off the lights. My children were panicking, so I told them to be calm. We prayed together for Jehovah’s protection. Meanwhile, my husband was still at the Kingdom Hall struggling to get the car started.

“I looked out the window and saw a man lying on the street outside the gate. It seemed that the robbers had gone, so I put the injured man in my car and rushed him to the hospital. It was a risk, but I had to do something. Sadly, though, he died the next day.

“Despite that tragedy, things could have been very much worse. The circuit overseer’s visit meant that we did not have the book study in our house. The car’s breaking down meant that we did not drive home as a family. My husband, whom the robbers would certainly have seized, did not arrive home until very late. These and other factors were to our advantage that night.

“Jehovah is our stronghold and our refuge. It is as the scripture says: ‘Unless Jehovah himself guards the city, it is to no avail that the guard has kept awake.’”—Psalm 127:1.