Fresh Start Devotionals

Darkness September 9, 2000 was a day like any other day for Larry and Terry Singletary, Southern Baptist Missionaries to Uganda, as they drove toward Karamoja, Uganda with their two teenage children in the back seat of their car. But it wasn’t just any day. A tribal warrior stepped out of the tall grass that flanks the primitive road, and when he saw them, darted back into the cover. A few seconds later, he reappeared with an AK-47 aiming toward their car. That’s when Larry noticed a second armed man on the other side of the road. Larry slammed on the breaks, threw the gearshift in reverse, pointed the car back toward safety, and sped away. Automatic weapons blazed. One bullet lodged between Andy’s (19) and Jackie’s (15) back seat. Another one shattered Andy’s window, and shrapnel from a third lodged in Jackie’s back. As the sound of the gunfire waned, it looked like the family had escaped danger, until they heard a tire blow. Cautiously, Larry got out of the car to change the tire. In the midst of the bedlam, Jackie cried out, “They just need Jesus! They live in darkness. They don’t understand … Oh God, they just need you!” After he fixed the tire, Larry jumped in the car and sped away. Soon another tire blew and they were stranded. Patiently, they trusted in the Lord and waited for help. The Lord sent a Catholic priest who took Terry and the children into town to get a tire repaired. When they returned, Larry put the tire on the car and they headed home. They did have another blow out, but it wasn’t until they were turning into their driveway. Jackie was right, the attackers did need Jesus. She ought to know, because through this trial, she came to know the sufficiency of His grace. Jim L. Wilson, Fresh Start Devotionals (Fresno, CA: Willow City Press, 2009).