Mission Under Fire by Rex Byers

organizer. She stayed behind. It was a good thing, too, because her knowledge of the trip details and families who were involved became critical to the emergency logistics. She kept Sharon abreast of any news that came in as the day progressed.
    While Sharon and Sue were preparing to gather our family, I called Sharon from the Haiti airport. I don’t recall much of what I said, but I remember telling her that Brad had saved my life, and warned her that the media may try to contact her. Then somewhere in the middle of our conversation, I broke down. Knowing that the love of my life was hurting so badly broke my heart, and it could also be that some of my pent up emotions were beginning to leak out. But that’s not all that was leaking. The media had already contacted the church. By the time Sharon and Sue stopped by the office that morning, reporters had repeatedly called my place of business drilling our secretary, Karen, with questions that she couldn’t answer.
    Sharon and her sister eventually left the office and went to visit Mandy, where Amber would join up later. During that time Rob, Mandy’s husband also came to be with the family. Sharon was working hard at keeping herself together. She wanted to remain strong even though she was feeling very anxious to see me. Around 1:00 pm, they all headed to Harvey Hinklemeyers for lunch. They kept the atmosphere light, grateful that I was alive, and busied themselves while they waited for my return. It would have been a very different day if they’d had no idea what was happening, or worse yet, had to arrange a funeral. But they didn’t, and that made the day and lunch much easier to swallow.
    ~•••~
    A mber had previously made plans to meet with her friend Heather that morning to watch a matinee. She knew there wasn’t anything she could do to hasten my return, so she decided the movie would be a good way to pass the time and keep from dwelling on the situation. Heather hadn’t heard anything about the shooting.
    While they were in line to buy their tickets, Amber leaned toward Heather, fully expecting a shocked response, and nonchalantly said, “My dad was shot last night.” 
    Heather whipped her head toward Amber and shouted in the middle of the lobby, “What the hell are you saying?”
    Of course this isn’t the usual time or place when friends reveal such information, but there just wasn’t an easy way to tell her. Amber proceeded to give her the details and assured her that I was okay and on my way home.
    ~•••~
    A round 4:00 pm Mandy left to be with her children who were returning from school. Sharon and Sue decided to swing by the church in search of the latest news and to pick up the car I had driven there before leaving for the trip. Upon entering the parking lot they immediately noticed a TV station van, along with a small gathering of personnel standing too close to the parking lot for her comfort. She didn’t want to be interrogated by the media, so she turned around and headed to Carson’s department store for a little “my husband’s been shot” therapy.
    Essentially, Sue did the shopping, while Sharon spent most of the day on the phone with friends or family. Gretchen kept the spouses informed, and as it turns out was instrumental in providing at least a little peace of mind, as hard as that is to imagine. 
    Amber spent some time later that afternoon at Jason’s house with his wife, Bridget, their daughters, a couple of our team-member’s wives, and Bridget’s extended family. They gathered additional details that were rolling in from Jason’s perspective, helping each other to cope. While they were together in the living room, a news report about the shooting flashed on the television. The reporters had obviously Googled images of the injured. Amber and the others sat frozen, shocked by the pictures plastered across the screen. Apparently, the only photo they could pull from the Internet of me was an image from my Facebook wall.