UPDATE: ESMI President and Wife accosted in Dominican Republic

Update on Pastor Dony and Sharon

Posted Fri, Mar 11, 2011 1:58 pm
We received updated information on Pastor Dony and Sharon that we would like to pass along to you.
If The Lord is willing they are leaving the Dominican Republic today (Friday). Sharon had to go back to the doctor on Thursday due to the pain in her neck where she was struck by the gunman. Dony is doing well, though they are both still quite shaken from the ordeal. He (Dony) did tell us that they are very blessed to be alive and that the material things can be replaced. As they assessed what was lost, it is quite overwhelming.

Dony had stopped over in Miami while on his way home from a mission conference in South Carolina and had packed up the remainder his clothes, mainly his suits and shoes, so he has lost most of his dress clothes. His Bibles (several translations) which included years of notes, sermons and teaching materials. The briefcase that he was carrying was lost as well and it contained files for many of the projects that ESMI is working on.

A more comprehensive list of items that were stolen in the robbery:

• Heavy damage to the car that they were driving, maybe beyond repair
• Dony's medications
• (2) US Blackberry phones and (2) Haitian Blackberry phones
• (2) Laptop computers
• (1) iPad
• Sharon's purse with cash and credit cards
• Dony's wallet with cash and credit cards (This included cash for repairs on the vehicle that was stolen and purchase of items for their new home $5,000 +)
• Clothes that Sharon had packed for travel

If you or your church would like to assist our the St.Germains in replacing these items, you can send your checks to:

El Shaddai Ministries International
P.O. Box 811000
Boca Raton, FL. 33486
Mark your check: Replacing Ministry Supplies

You can also donate from our website at:

http://www.esmihome.org/site.php/donate/sponsor_a_project1/
Under the project name please include Replacing Ministry Supplies

After this terrifying ordeal our dear friends are blessed to not be in worse shape. The Hand of The Almighty was surely upon them. Last night in his normal fashion Pastor Dony closed a conversation by saying, "...tomorrow we go back to work."

ESMI President and Wife accosted in Dominican Republic

Please pray for the President of ESMI and his wife (Dony and Sharon St. Germain.   Below is Sharon's account of an attempt last night to kidnap them while they were traveling through the Dominican Republic.
=============================================================
From: Dony and Sharon St. Germain
Subject: Dony & Sharon-Car Hijacked in the DR

Brothers:

What I am about to share to you seems unreal.  Not sure where to begin but to ask you to be in prayer for us once you have finished reading this.

Yesterday I met up with Dony in Port.  My flight from Jeremie was late so I didn't reach until 2:30 pm.  Since we needed to fix the car, we decided to drive it to the DR to do this and have some R & R while it got fixed. We croseed over into the DR about 4:30pm and were about 20 minutes from the capital, Santo Domingo, when we got stuck behind a slow moving truck.  A red car pulled alongside us, banged on the window with guns and flashlights and said, "Policia, Policia!"  We thought this was unusaual because we weren't speeding, the car had no siren signals, the banging on the window...what was this?  Our vehicle was to the curb where there was a ditchand two of the men jumped out of the vehicle demandig us to come to a full stop which we did.  By this time, it was about 8:20 on the highway and it was dark.  They violently asked us to step out of the vehicle.  We showed them the insurance documents we had from the border and the guy at Dony's side tore them apart.  That's when we realized these weren't true police officers even though one of them showed me his identification when I asked him.  We were pulled out of the vehicle and they began pushing us toward theirs to the back.  They were two other guys in that car.  One of them wrapped Dony's hand behind him as if to handcuff him.  He pulled out his gus and pushed it into Dony's side demanding him to get into the car.  Dony said to me in English, they are going to kidnap us.  At that point, I thought to myself no way, and began trying to get loose from the guy who was pushing me.  I began waving my arm and screaming, "Help! Help!"  I felt one of them use the gun and hit me behind my right ear, and the other guy hit Dony in his head.  Dony screamed out to the LOrd and then said to the men in Spanish, "I am a pastor.  Go ahead and take our car but spare my wife and me.!"  I by that time was trying to wave down passing cars for help.  The men looked around and then left as the other two already jumped into our car.  They drove off with everything we had, 5 bags, the ESMI dsiplay, the  $5,000 cash to fix the vehicle, and pay for some personal construction material on our home, our credit cards, my laptop with all the ESMI work that I was planning to do,....and my shoes.  I was barefooted as I screamed to apssing cars to stop and help us and begged God that someone would. An old man stopped.  Dony explained in his Spanish what had happened.  A few meters down the highway, he stopped where there were some men standing who were trying to get a car out of a ditch.  It so happened that as the bandits were taking off in our car, they pushed this vehicle off to the side.  After conversing with these men, the old man decided to take us to the nearest police sttion in the city ahead.

When we got to the station, the language was a barrier but Dony did his best to explain.  After about an hour, an officer who spoke English came and translated for us.  They took the information down and we'll return there this morning.  My time is running short as a friend is here to take us there.

We both woke up with some pain and bruises we hadn't felt before but we are thankful that we are alive.  This is the fourth time since we've moved to Haiti that we have had to call upon the Lord in a different kind of manner but He has been so so faithful to protect our family.  We serve a faithful God.

All we ask this morning is that you keep us in your prayers and that we will not be distracted from our purpose for being here in the DR to rest and seek God's face as we move forward.  The car is gone with all our clothing, computers, cell phones, ipad, iphone...and my shoes..but God remains!!!

No phones, but will check email later.  Keep an eye out fo our green car on facebook!

In His Name,


Dony & Sharon