Kidnapped Kernersville resident shares her story
By Jennifer Schneider
Features & News Editor
Nearly three months after she was kidnapped from her home, Kernersville resident Susan Patrick, 32, decided to tell her story.
“Back in October 2008, I got off work late at night and decided to stop by the store,” she told members of the Calvary Chapel of the Triad congregation Sunday. “Once I got home, I took a few items into the house, just like I had done a million times before, and when I came back out to get the rest of my things there was a guy standing next to me and another right in front of me with a gun. Initially when I turned around I screamed because it startled me.”
In shock, Patrick asked the men what they wanted.
“They told me they wanted my money, and when I told them I had already taken my purse inside they proceeded to make me walk down my driveway and down the street to their car,” she said. “They picked me up and put me in the truck.”
Although frightened, Patrick said she felt a calm come over her that allowed her to think of what to do next.
“I prayed throughout the whole thing and my next thought was, what do I do next,” she said. “The first thing I did was take the phone out of my pocket and call 9-1-1. I told them I had been kidnapped and they needed to come find me. I was really calm throughout the whole ordeal. The Bible talks about peace only the Lord can give you and you really cannot describe that until He gives it to you. At one point an officer passed the car and later he told me something told him to turn around. I told him that was God who told him to go back.”
Authorities were able to find Patrick’s approximate location from her cell phone transmission and Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office deputies and Kernersville Police Department officers were dispatched.
The police units chased the car until it was wrecked and the kidnappers fled from the scene on foot. After a few minutes, officers were able to free Patrick from the trunk unharmed.
Within two weeks, three men were charged with the kidnapping and are currently being held in the Forsyth County Jail.
Orlando Joshua Wesley, 17, is charged with felony kidnapping, armed robbery, first-degree burglary and felony possession of a stolen vehicle. Eric Carlyle Farmer Jr., 16, and Demario Andrew Johnson, 18, are charged with felony kidnapping and armed robbery.
Although many would have been angry at the men who attacked them, Patrick was more worried about making sure they knew the Lord.
“My heart is broken because they are living in the world, so to speak,” she said. “They have allowed bad things to happen by not listening to the Lord. At a certain point the 9-1-1 tape was going to be public record so I had an opportunity to listen to it. When I did that, I bought three Bibles and took them with me to the sheriff and asked him to give them to the men. The most important part of this is God’s grace and mercy, because everybody messes up in life and whether it is big or small, it is important for people to realize that not only can you be forgiven for the little stuff, but for the big stuff as well.”
When asked if she put a personal note in the Bibles given to each of her kidnappers, Patrick said she didn’t have to because the Bible itself was a personal note.
Although at first she wanted to remain anonymous, Patrick said a lot of thought and prayer went into her decision to finally share her story.
“I think it is important to wait and see what God is going to do with the situation and not act right away,” she said. “I have been praying about it since it happened and many people I know have come up to me and said because of what happened to me, they are more careful in their own lives. Another thing I consistently thought about is that God kept me safe through the whole ordeal. A lot of times you have fear and it’s all in your head and if the Lord’s plan for me was to have this happen than that is His plan. I don’t know what God’s plan is for me, but obviously He had me go through this for a reason and I came out of it safe for a reason.”
Calvary Chapel Senior Pastor David McGee said he is impressed at the steps Patrick has taken to move forward and share her faith with others.
“To take what happened and then speak about it takes guts, but she wants to give God the glory and we believe the Lord will do something special with this,” he said. “When someone goes through something like this, they have a natural tendency to have hard feelings toward those who did something to them, but not Susan. It would have been easy to draw into her shell, but that is not what she did. If it wasn’t for her taking the Bibles to the men or getting the church to pray for them, I don’t think we would have encouraged her to tell her story and put her name out there. This says so much about her heart.”
Patrick said she feels blessed to have the support of her family, friends and church and she hopes that one day good can come out of such a tragic situation.
“I am thankful that God is my God, that Jesus is my savior and that Pastor David is my pastor,” she said. “The Lord has blessed me with awesome people in my life. After all of this, it would be great if one day we were all in heaven and I could sit down with these men and talk about everything that happened. The one thing I have learned is you cannot rely on yourself. You have to rely on God and I consult Him now more than I used to.”
This story was previously posted at: http://kernersvillenews.com/feature_detail.asp?ID=648
It also appeared on the front page of the Kernersville News - Tuesday Edition 01/27/09
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