Just a few weeks ago, I received your CD sermon titled, The Year Of Unceasing Fruitfulness, and was truly inspired by it. When you said that 2012 would be a year of famine for the world, but one of fruitfulness for believers who receive the gift of God’s righteousness and the abundance of His grace, I felt that message quicken in me, and I have been meditating on that Word from Jeremiah 17 ever since.

A few nights ago as I was studying and meditating, I felt compelled to pray for the protection of my family and friends. So I stopped and asked the Father to bless them, to reveal to them the abundance of His love and grace, and to preserve them from evil.

Well, tonight He protected my older brother as only He can. My brother and I had planned to stop by my parents’ house this evening to check on them as they had not answered their phones for a few days. I drove, but my brother walked, as he usually does, from the subway that was nearby.

As I drew near my parents’ home along the route that my brother usually walks, there were several police cars blocking the road. So I detoured and at the other end of the block were several more police cars and yellow tape (in the United States, that’s usually a sign that something very serious has happened). My heart felt like it stopped for a moment, then I started repeating to myself, “Let not your heart be troubled.”

I arrived at my parents’ house a few moments later to find my brother safely there. I told him about the police having blocked off one of the nearby streets and we could now hear helicopters circling and see searchlights flashing. My brother asked if I was sure about the location of the police cars, and then shared how on his way here, three men walked straight toward him wearing ski masks and that one even walked right into him.

Ordinarily, he would have avoided them especially since they were wearing ski masks when it was more than 60 degrees. But by the time he saw them, they were right in his face. So he just decided to keep walking, albeit faster, and only a few moments later heard what sounded like gunshots. At that time, he thought it was something else. As we were listening to the helicopters still circling, we realized that it wasn’t something else.

There have been reports of a rash of armed robberies in different areas in DC committed by masked men. Thanks to the Father’s divine protection, my brother didn’t become one of the victims. I told him afterward, “God has a hedge around you.”