Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Be careful...

First of all, can I just say that I am listening to my IPOD right now on shuffle, and a Christmas song came on!! :) I LOVE Christmas music, and I am totally not changing the song ;) he he.... okay, I digress....

Hello, all!! I really don't have a specific thing to blog about, but, nonetheless, feel like blogging, so here we go!!!

So, I have been up at DBU the past few days, because the Swafford household (aka the house I am living at right now) is having a bit of a problem with our computers. I have been filling out applications online for teaching positions, and can i just tell you they take FOREVER and a DAY!! Okay, so maybe not that long, but I am not exaggerating when I say that they are LONG. One took me about 2 and half hours, and I didn't even finish yesterday. BOOO!! But, oh well, if I can get a job interview from filling one of these babies out, then I know it is worth it!! I have a job fair in Coppell this weekend. It is on Saturday and starts at 7:45 in the morning. I know... can we say early. Oh well, I AM PRAYING that I will get a job. They are offering contracts if the interviews go well!! What seems to be the hardest part of this whole job thing right now is that there are only a limited amount of English Teacher openings for 8-12. I went to a job fair at UTA and it was a bit discouraging... but I know, and am trying to trust that the Lord is and WILL provide the right job when it is time.

Last night I attended the DBU baseball game and saw a bunch of friends, and one of my friends received a text message to pass along. It said to be careful if any of us were going out into Dallas last night because it was gang initation night and there were random car that were being marked to be shot at, and some to be bumped into, only for the person to be pulled over, shot at, and the care stolen. So.... we all heard this, and of course were scared, but just took the information and went on. Well my friend that actually recieved the text message actually got her car marked last night (or we are guessing that is what happened.) Below is the letter she sent out to quite a few people.... I cannot believe that this happened. I think we sometimes forget that Dallas is quite a dangerous place... or at least, I guess I do. I inserted the letter below because she tells the story better than I do. Please be praying for her.. her name is Kelly.
Yesterday was a normal day and all seemed well. A group of us went out to eat for Nicks birthday lastnight. I received a text message from a friend that read not to drive in the Dallas area that Gangs all over were doing gang initiation and would shoot at random cars(a message their professor had told them in class that night). It made me really think and I was very cautious last night. Another friend at the restaurant said he had heard about gangs doing "bump and runs" where they will bump into your car so you will pull over and then shoot you and steal your vehicle. All of us talked about all of the dangers that were out in Dallas and were just kind of talking lightly about it all, with the attitude it would never happen to any of us. If I had only known at that moment, Nick and I were about to go on the ride of our life.

Nick, Anna, and I left the restaurant and were going back to DBU campus(which is just a few minutes down the road from Oak Cliff). On I-20 exiting mountain creek parkway, I noticed a light blue 4 door car was slowing down in front of us and I told Nick do NOT show that you are turning onto Mt. Creek this is really wierd. So we did not use signals and went to turn at the very last minute when it appeared the blue car was passing the exit, when all of the sudden the car whipped in front of us crossing over the white lines and barely making the exit. Then we came up to the stop sign (where we needed to turn left) again I told Nick do NOT show them which direction we are turning, so Nick acted as if we were going to turn right and the blue car made a slow right turn and we immediatly made our left turn to go to campus. At this point the slow creepy car, which appeared to be following us in the front was out of sight, out of mind. This car was involved and apparently called up to gang member or theif who had the next step and that was to get us.

As we were approaching campus I noticed a new edition light blue colored expedition fish tailing down mt. creek and sped up the hill. I said OMG! Did yall see that! Right as we entered DBU gates, Nick and Anna noticed the expedition had hid behind the brick wall for us to pass and shut their lights off until we passed then, cut them on and followed us through campus all the way down to the apartments were Anna and I live. They passed the turn to our apartments, so being nieve we kind of let it go. Nick waited for me outside so I could come over and help him on a paper. As we were leaving campus, we looked behind us and there was that same expedition behind us. We continued on mt. creek parkway(which is the darkest, scariest and windiest road in Dallas). The following was from 11:45pm-1230am. As soon as we hit the darkness, the expedition cut their lights off and began to gain on us. Nick noticed and screamed "they are coming!!!" I just started screaming for my life, not knowing if we had another day to live. Honestly.

We continued on Mt.Creek and reached the top speed of 110 miles an hour, when out of no where and 18 wheeler pulled out in front of us, we came to a complete stop and the expedition was gaining on us. They then tried to pull up onto the driver side of the car(which we knew would be a shooting and lead to a car-jacking or our lifes). Nick hugged the middle of the road so they could not get beside us. Nick topped the speed on 100 mph when I called 911.

I was on the phone with 911 as we were being folllowed by a vehicle with their lights off(they would flick them on every 5 seconds for just a second so they could see). This road is the darkest of the darkest. We approached I-20 and took the turn at 70 mph and were on two wheels at this time but running for our lifes from these gang members. They continued to follow us onto I-20 at top speeds of 110 mph, they were going atleast 95 weaving in and out of traffic. 911 told us to keep driving and they had transferred us to G.P. 911, Dallas 911, back to G.P. 911 then we told them we were continuing to Arlington until we could lose the followers.

We then noticed a police officer was pulling someone over and I screamed at Nick and said go go go pull in behind that police car and we cut on our hazards. They grabbed their guns and started running our plates and right away 5 police cars piled in behind us in response to our 911 call.

They got all of our information and told us we did the right thing, But since the car was no longer behind us(which they probably left us when they saw us with 6 police cars around us) they could not help us out. They sent us on our way and out of fear and not knowing if whoever the people were, were out to get us, kill us, car-jack my car or What. We drove to Clifton for the night and left the city.

We got home at 2 in the morning and my dad noticed my license plate was bent as if it was a mark done at the restaurant we were at to follow our vehicle.

I honestly know that the Lords presence is with us in our lifes always. He saved our lifes last night. God was working through Nick to control my car at 110mph and not wreck. We had no choice, we would never drive at the speed. But this was an honest LIFE OR death situation. Someone was out to get us, our car, kill us, or car-jack us. There is no telling with the Gangs that were out. This may be one thing we will never find out.

I ask for prayers for Nick and I and other DBU students who might be traveling on the same dark road. Please be aware of your surroundings at all times and keep the Lord close to your heart. He is our only safety net in life and the only one who keeps us safe and from danger. I know praying is very powerful and I encourage you to pray today. The Lord is with all of us everyday and we definitely had guardian angels around us last night.

Sorry if their is a lot of typos, we stayed wide awake all night in fear and I have had prob. 45 minutes of sleep total.
I am very sick and I have been throwing up all morning just not knowing if they were looking for me, nick, or just wanted my hummer. But my hummer is never going to dallas again it is staying in Clifton and I am getting a safer car thats not so much of a target to the aweful people in the world we live in.
This has altered my opinion of living in Dallas and I don't know if I should continue my senior year online and live at home. But this was one of those life changing experiences and we could have been gone in a second.

Thank you for your prayers and please dont ever be vulnerable to this kind of attack. There are always wierdos lurking in darkness and target college girls especially or nice vehicles.
I love you all...


I really do not have much else to say. Everyone be careful, and stay safe. I am going to go back and work on my interviewing stuff. Please be in prayer for me about my job interview this weekend. That would be awesome if I got a job in Coppell because it is closer to The Village (my church)!! I know I have been promising to blog about what the Lord is doing, and I really will do that soon. The Lord is just doing so much right now, it is hard to all get it down onto, well, blogging form.

Love you guys,
Ashie

3 comments:

rob. said...

thanks for sharing the scariest story ever........ eek!

Michelle said...

hey girl,
jonathan and i were just reading this crazy story. i can not even imagine what they were going through. it is weird, but i just got an e-mail that gang members were targeting people in houston starting last thursday for the thirteen days. i will for sure take that e-mail seriously now.
i will be praying for them.
wow....
m

Unknown said...

This story is so scary and truly does make you realize what kind of world we live in. Praise the Lord she and Nick were ok.