Pistol Packing Mama - Beware!

And... they say that living in the country is sedate & boring!  Well, not when there's a brutal murder a mile down the road in the wee hours of a Saturday & the murderer is still afoot weeks (yes, I mean WEEKS) later!  When the conversation with your walking friend along country roads, fields & woods is interrupted by the sound of a low-flying helicopter buzzing over your head, life out here isn't boring.  When on another day you & a different walking partner glance over your shoulders to see three 4-wheelers slowly approaching while combing every inch the ditches along your walking road, it's not boring.  As a matter of fact, it's a little unsettling!

My friends & I have joked about running into the corn in the opposite direction - if someone walks out of the woods toward us. We've begun wondering actually whose DNA is on those discarded water bottles (shame on litterers - another blog) that we pass along the roadside. One friend is glad she brings her Akita along. Another friend has begun carrying pocket mace. My city-friends are telling me to be careful... to be safe.   

In a little sleepy town like this, how can he still be missing!?! Even America's Most Wanted has gotten in on the search.  

I've had several friends tell me that I need to get a gun to take along with me. And, I'm not really a "gun person." However, when I was in 2nd grade, my best friend's father made her a toy gun in his wood shop. She was a true "country girl". We had decided that her older brothers (19 & 21) had guns. Why shouldn't we?!?!  Hence, her father supplied us each with a "piece" to protect her family's farm from the notorious LIONS, TIGERS & BEARS that are so prevalent at the foot of the North Carolina mountains. (Ha!)

That gun has been going along with me on my walks for over 20 days now!  I guess you could say that I am a pistol packing mama.  Carrying a gun like that adds a whole new meaning to the term "pistol whipped."  

Do I put my hope of protection & safety in my neighbor's Akita, in my other friend's pepper spray, in the gun which slayed countless "scarey sounds" in those North Carolina woods many, many years ago?  

No!  I put my hope of protection & safety in something far greater... the One who hung the stars... the One who lovingly created me inside my mother's womb... the One who lovingly created the man who has eluded the authorities & needs a Savior now more than ever.  

"Some trust in chariots and some in horses,

but we trust in the name of the LORD our God."

Psalm 20:7 NIV

"We faithfully preach the truth. God's power is working in us.

We use the weapons of righteousness in the right hand for attack

and the left hand for defense." 

2 Corinthians 6:7 NLT

I am not oblivious to the potential dangers around. I will proceed with caution as I am out & about.  I won't be careless.  But, I will trust in the Almighty God for protection from our "local fugitive" & so many other things in the world over which I have no control.

UPDATE:  Still looking for him... 5 weeks later...