by Chris Moore
BBFI Missionary to Kenya
Early one morning, while driving to Maasai Corner, I noticed a large crowd on the side of the road. I slowed to see what was happening and was horrified to see many people beating and kicking a young woman. I drove my truck off the road and into the crowd, honking my horn repeatedly. I jumped out of the truck and pushed my way through the mob that was beating her.
I screamed loudly several times in Swahili, “Please stop! Please do not kill this woman!” Miraculously, they stopped for a moment and turned to me. I asked why they were beating this woman, and they replied that she had stolen someone’s phone.
I asked where the phone was and they replied they could not find the phone on her, but she was guilty of stealing it. I asked them if the value of any phone was worth killing this young woman, and their response was, “Yes, we are going to kill her.”
“How much did the phone cost?” I asked. They said it cost $60. I asked again if $60 justified taking this lady’s life and many of them screamed, “Yes, she is a thief, and she must die!”
To the one who appeared to be the leader of the mob, I said I would pay this debt if they would give the woman to me and place her into my truck. Quickly two men grabbed the lady by her hair and dragged her to my truck, and I helped her into the seat. After paying the money to the leader of this mob, I drove back through hundreds of spectators who had now gathered to watch the savage killing that was about to take place.
As I made my way back to the main road, I asked the woman if she needed to go to the hospital. She said, “No.” I gave her some towels to wipe the blood from her nose, mouth, and hands. Through her tears, she began to speak to me proclaiming her innocence all the while.
She told me her name was Dorothy, and that she saw the man who stole the phone. She tried to tell the people who were surrounding her, but because she was a stranger to the area they refused to listen or believe her story. Dorothy said she was 23 years old and had an eight-month-old child at home who recently became ill. This is what led her to the coastal town to find work. She went on to say that over the past few days she was forced to sell her body to strangers for food and a place to sleep.
As Dorothy was telling me her story, she paused for a moment, then looked at me and said something I will never forget. She said, “Today God sent you to save me! You do not know me, and yet you have paid a debt that I could never have paid. Thank you for saving my life!”
As I shed tears with her, I told her I was a Christian, and that Jesus Christ had once saved me from certain death. I told her that it was God’s will for me to meet her at this moment because He has a better plan for her life. I went on to tell her there was no way I could just stand by and watch those people beat her to death, no matter what crime she had committed.
We drove to Maasai Corner to see Pastor Erick Chondo and his wife, Jane. When we arrived, Jane greeted Dorothy in their mother tongue — they were from the same tribe! After dressing her wounds, they gave her some new clothes from the church clothes pantry (hers had been ripped by the crowd) and a good hot meal to eat. She was then able to rest for some hours in the safety of Pastor Erick’s home.
When Dorothy awoke, Erick and his wife began witnessing to her. They told Dorothy, “You know, Chris doesn’t usually come this way on Thursdays because this is the day that he teaches at the Bible college. But miraculously, God created an opportunity for Chris to be a good Samaritan and rescue you from that angry mob.”
Pastor Erick explained that the God he serves loves her, and that many years ago God sent His son, Jesus, to pay a debt for her by dying on a cross for her sins. There, on the floor of Erick’s house, Dorothy cried out to God for forgiveness and asked Him to come into her heart and save her. After an emotional outpouring of gratitude to Pastor Erick and his wife, she looked at them and said, “I have now been saved twice!”