More Details About What Happened In Kabul On Saturday Afternoon

1-11pm

This week, I have been following the brutal slaying of Werner Groenewald, and his teenagers, JP and Rode in their Kabul compound. Werner’s wife Hannelie, was not home at the time of the attack.

Bonnie linked me with a story on World Watch Monitor. It was not only the Groenewalds who lost their lives that day. Werner worked for an organisation called Partnership in Academics and Development (PAD). Another of its workers was also shot and killed. Father of small two children, his name has not been identified for security reasons.  Pray for his family. Apparently there have been 9 attacks in the Kabul area in the last two weeks.

From what I gather, there were about a dozen people at the compound on Saturday afternoon.  It’s described as a double story ‘guesthouse.’ Three armed Taliban soldiers dressed in police uniform stormed the building, setting off a grenade at the entrance. In the reception area they shot Werner in the leg.  A worker witnessed this. He managed to hide behind steel cabinets and was able to hear some of what was going on. There were other people around, who the three took hostage. Werner, meantime, went upstairs, planning to warn and protect his children. How much time he had or what exactly he did to get there (remember he had been shot), I don’t know.

The soldiers followed and it was in the upstairs section of the house that the Groenewalds were shot dead. Two more people died of gunshot wounds (including the worker for PAD), while others were injured in the attack.  Afghan security forces arrived and after some time, managed to corner the militants. Apparently the battle lasted three hours. One of the attackers had a bomb attached to his vest and he detonated that. The other two were shot dead by Afghan police. The house was set alight burning all the Groenewald’s personal possessions…

Photo : ©Shah Marai (AFP) www.dailymail.co.uk

Hannelie arrived home in time to see her loved ones being removed from the house.  She is staying at an undisclosed destination, working with the SA Embassy in neighbouring Pakistan (there is no SA Embassy in Kabul) trying to get the documents she needs to get home and get her family’s remains home. Naturally, this is a complicated process. She also must have to wrap up her work at the Kabul hospital. She told her sister “I just want to get home.” I can imagine.

I look from the outside in and mourn her loss. I say to myself, ‘how does one get over something like this?’ The answer comes back at me, ‘with God, one day at a time, slowly and patiently.’ My biggest prayer is that God will bathe her in His supernatural peace. She will one day look back at this painful time and say, “I only got through it, by God’s grace.”

Philippians 4:7

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

And so I pray for Hannelie….and my plan is to continue to pray for Hannelie. I will pray for Hannelie for the next 12 months. I hope you will be able to pray too.

When these kind of things happen, it makes everything else fade into insignificance… washing not done, traffic irritations… the treasures of life become those you cannot put a price on.

Hug your children a little closer. Forgive a little sooner.

God bless you!

In His Grip,

Helga xx 🙂