Shaquille Hairston
What could have been just another crime statistic turned out to be a powerful faith sharing experience when the prayer of a mugging victim sent his attacker fleeing into the night – without the loot!
Christian Today is reporting on the story of Shaquille Hairston, 21, who was getting off the bus in Euclid, Ohio late one night when he realized that he was being followed. Before he could react, the stalker was upon him.
“He stopped me. He said ‘Aye bruh’ and I turned around and he pulled out a gun and said ‘gimme everything you got,” Hairston told WJW-TV earlier this month. “He raised the gun up and he was like ‘I’ll shoot you. I’m not playing with you, man.’
“I told him . . . I don’t have anything. I really don’t have anything and he took the gun; he swung and he hit me in my head really hard and I had a bump right here on my head,” he said.
At that point, Hairston decided to hand over his phone and wallet. Now fearing for his life, Hairston, who attends New Direction Church of Christ in Cleveland, began to pray out loud.
“Because even if that was gonna be my last night living, I wanted to go out knowing that God was with me and I had God on my mind and if I did go, I would be with him when I woke up on the other side,” he said.
And so he prayed for his assailant, asking the Lord to help him and his family.
When the robber heard his prayer, his heart softened. He began to speak with Hairston, telling him that he was unemployed and that this was his first robbery.
The robber then apologized and handed back his cell phone and wallet.
“Man, just keep your stuff. I’m so sorry for this,” he told Hairston. “You were the wrong type of person to do this to’.”
A moment later, the two shook hands and the robber went his way.
Hairston believes there’s a reason why this happened and even though he reported it to police, he told reporters that he forgives the man and simply hopes that he will one day come to know God.
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