I wanted to give those who read Ben's story a chance to ask me questions that might have come up in their minds, that I didn't answer in the posts. Keep in mind that there are details I will not share at this time, for a variety of reasons. I moderate all comments before they post, so if your question is one I can't or won't answer online, then your comment just won't show up at all. Sorry about that, but it's the best way I can figure out how to do this.
Have at it! LOL
16 comments:
What was the first thing Ben wanted to eat when he got home?
Someone got him some baleadas to eat at the police station (baleadas are THE Honduran fast food - a soft flour tortilla folded in half with refried beans and a local salty cheese inside), so he wasn't quite so starving when we brought him home.
We decided to have a celebration meal, so we invited Russell and Iris up to our place for dinner, and we purchased two rare and much enjoyed delicacies: Chinese take-out, and a meat shish-ka-bob that local vendors sell on the street outside the market.
Note to future would-be kidnappers: if your target family thinks that having Chinese take-out and grilled meat from street vendors is a way to really live it up in celebration . . . perhaps you should consider that they might not be as well-to-do as you'd thought!
Anyway, we all sat down at the table, and served up a few plates until Allen was ready to pray . . . but then we realized that before the prayer Ben had already cleaned his plate! He was still that hungry! He said it was two days later before he got up in the morning feeling normal, haven't-had-breakfast hungry, and not crazy hungry.
I know this isn't a question, but I just wanted to comment and say the way the kidnapper acted toward your son was interesting, to say the least. I was imagining a sort-of different personality I guess...? (Especially being a *kidnapper*, you know?)
I'm thankful he came home unharmed, praise the Lord.
Wondering how you are doing, how you are sleeping, what we can be praying for your family NOW? You don't have to open up to the whole blogosphere, but just know we care.
Ben is doing amazingly well. He's eating, sleeping, and behaving normally. He still jumps at every chance to ride to town! We're keeping an eye on him, of course, in case some sort of trauma-related problem should arise, but so far there's pretty much nothing!
I'm recovering slower than Ben, but I'm pretty much okay now. I ate very little and slept sporadically for the first week, but that's mostly resolved. AND, I've already started driving in and out of town again - and enjoying it. I think that might be huge!
Do you feel that your Honduran neighbors and friends rallied around you in the same way that North Americans would have? Or were there differences and if there were differences what were they?
If you could have planned ahead for this eventuality are there any things which you would have noted in a book and ready just in case? Like car License plates? or photos? or Embassy numbers? or code on the telephone calls?
Hmm, that's a good question, but I'll probably give a lousy answer.
In general, sure it would be a good idea to have some general information stored in an easy-to-find place . . . and obviously that place isn't in your phone! It was very good that I knew my husband's and son's phone numbers in my head, or I'd have had no one to call once the kidnapper took my phone!
So, yes, emergency numbers, vehicle information, all those phone numbers you don't know (in my case, including my own phone number, LOL), passport and residency numbers . . . those all may or my not come into play.
In the big picture, though, we were also asked for info that we'd never have thought would come up. All the paperwork from our unsuccessful attempts to adopt Ben, for instance. Who'd have guessed we'd be asked for that during such a stressful time? So, I guess the real advice is to keep all of your important paperwork well filed so that things are easy to find. Depending on your personality, that may or may not happen, of course! LOL
Oops - this will be the answer to the question before the last one. I'm not sure how things got out of order.
I never went through anything remotely like this when I lived in the US, so I don't think I can make a comparison, but I can tell you that we did feel that the community came alongside to help us.
Many local people came out to search for Ben, the police searched the area where he was last seen and also stopped and searched cars all over the country. The churches in Gracias set up prayer vigils and spread the word throughout the country so that more people would be praying.
Since the kidnapping, neighbors have been coming to call, to chat and to show their love and support. As I drive back and forth to town these days, lots of the neighbors that I just know to wave to are giving me big smiles and thumbs-up as I go past!
The very small local missionary community was on hand to do whatever we needed, and often put up with our not knowing what we needed, but asking them to help us anyway, LOL. They also bought us some groceries the first day, so we'd have something in the fridge to eat . . . since we'd just had the wedding, our household wasn't exactly in a normal state!
The larger community of missionaries in Honduras has been great, too. Everyone is respecting our need for some space, and still making sure that we know that they're praying for us and they're available to us for whatever needs might arise in the aftermath of all of this.
On a practical level, will you or any of the extended family be changing phone #s? Obviously, the kidnappers now know how to reach all of you again in the future..... :-(
Most of the phone numbers were changed, though not all of them . . . a couple of our numbers are major contact numbers used for the ministry, and we don't want to change them unless the kidnapper starts using them to contact us, which hopefully won't happen!
Unless he finds Jesus, sounds like Ben was an amazing witness for Christ in an extreme circumstance.
Trish, when life gets back to normal, will you be able to blog/post some pictures of your beautiful daughter and son-in-law's wedding?
How large (population-wise) is the town of Gracias?
Oh, this question made me LOL! My new son in law reads my blog, and he was just complaining (tongue in cheek, of course) that his wedding got bumped off the blog because of the kidnapping!
I will make sure to post some of the photos as soon as things calm down a bit here!
The population of the city of Gracias is about 12,000. The entire municipalidad has about 50,000 people.
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