Here’s a piece of the Thomas Hamill hostage story I hadn’t heard before. This is a short excerpt from a piece by Stefan Bos as distributed by the ASSIST News Service.
Hamill made clear that at the end God is in control. “I’ve been a Christian all my life, but it’s hard to say exactly if you can put everything in God’s hands unless it just comes down to that fact,” former hostage Hamill, 44, told Baptist Press (BP) news agency. “That’s what happened to me on the deal with being captured. I didn’t have anybody else to put it in, and I laid it in God’s hands.”
Hamill, who works for the Halliburton Corp. subsidiary KBR, was among seven U.S. contractors who disappeared after an attack on their fuel convoy on April 9. The bodies of four others were later found. Two military men in the group also vanished; one was later found dead, and the other, Pfc. Keith M. Maupin of Batavia, Ohio, remains missing.
PRAYERS ANSWERED
Hamill spent 23 days in captivity, enduring surgery by Iraqis with only local anesthesia on his wounded arm. The truck driver from Macon, Miss., then escaped after days of prayers on May 2, and was eventually rescued by U.S. troops. “I prayed to Him daily. I never did have any pain with my arm. That was one thing that amazed me because I prayed He’d ease up as much pain as He could,” Hamill said. “I could stand a lot if I needed to, but I prayed He’d just do what He could to ease up the pain. The whole time I was there I never did have any pain with it,” he told BP.
After a previous failed attempt and being moved several times after that incident, he looked out one day and saw U.S. humvees moving along with soldiers on foot. After breaking free, he ran to meet them and was safe at last. Psalm 23:4, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil,” is the verse Hamill clung to while captive, and it calmed his fears, he said.
“I prayed that every day,” BP quoted him as saying. “I knew I was in a situation where anyone could be afraid, and for some reason I never was afraid. I knew He was there with me and I knew He was going to be there to protect me. I looked back on the Book of Job. He told Satan he could do whatever he wanted to with [Job] to try to change his faith, but He said he couldn’t kill him. I think that’s kind of what my situation was. The devil had me, but He wasn’t going to let him kill me. He got me through this situation and brought me home.”