[Magdalen] Prayer Request

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

Prayers for her, of course. Prayers for the sad, sad state of humanity that
half of us lives in a constant feeling of vulnerability, and that some of
us get satisfaction from vicious degradation of others.

On Nov 4, 2016 3:24 PM, "Jay Weigel" <jay.weigel at gmail.com> wrote:

> Prayers, please, for Rachel, a young woman who is the daughter of a friend
> in Tennessee, who was assaulted Wednesday. She is injured and badly shaken,
> but alive. It could have been worse. She was very brave and did all the
> right things.
>
> Here are the circumstances, in her own words (She will not mind my sharing
> them here as she shared them on Facebook):
>
> Yesterday afternoon I did what I almost always do and I headed to Panther
> Creek to walk/run. I parked at the visitor center, and went my usual route
> across the length of the road and back down toward Old Wagon Trail. There
> was a man behind me on the road as I was walking towards the trail and we
> briefly talked about which side of the road was the safest to be on. When I
> turned onto the trail I took out an ear bud and assumed the footsteps I
> heard behind me belonged to the man I had just spoken to.
>
> About half way down the trail the person behind me seemed awfully close
> which was more annoying than anything. When we turned the first sharp
> corner on the path so that we were both facing Panther Creek Road the man
> came up quickly beside me. I was relieved assuming he was finally going to
> pass me. Instead he punched me in the jaw. I was very disoriented, but not
> so much that I didn't realize he was very aggressively grabbing and groping
> me. All I could do was scream for help at the top of my lungs. I choose Old
> Wagon because it's the most popular and therefore the most heavily traveled
> trail in the park. I take this route nearly every single weekday, and run
> into familiar faces on it all the time. It was around 1 in the afternoon on
> a beautiful day. I was sure that if I screamed loud enough someone would
> hear me. I have no idea how long we struggled, but he did finally get
> scared of the noise I was making and he took off.
>
> As he ran away I snapped a picture of him with my phone. He saw me do that,
> and ran back toward me. He had already tried to take me down with a punch,
> and he knew I wasn't going to stop yelling for help so this time he
> strangled me. I have never in my life been so afraid. I couldn't breathe or
> think and he kept demanding that I give him the phone. I finally held it
> out and he took it. He called me some names, and then told me to run in the
> direction we had been going, and he would go the other way. I did my best
> to run back to the visitor center and waved down a ranger in the parking
> lot.
>
> I begged the ranger to quickly close the front gate hoping we could catch
> him before he could leave, but he drove by as I was talking. I pointed him
> out and the ranger went after him immediately. We filled out a report, and
> they took pictures of my face, neck, and chest. He got away, but he had my
> phone. My father (who has lost a phone or 2) was able to use my Google
> account to track down my phone, and we called the police who used that
> information to find and arrest him. He confessed and is being charged with
> aggravated assault, sexual assault, theft, and evading arrest. I'm ONLY
> putting this out there because I have so many friends and acquaintances who
> run and hike in Panther Creek. PLEASE don't go alone. If you do tell
> someone where you are going and bring pepper spray. We can't let this
> happen to anyone else!!!
>