Weeks after his escape from enemy hands in Iraq, Thomas Hamill’s memory of God’s faithfulness remains vivid: God sustained him and removed the pain and fear that otherwise had the potential to overcome him.
“I’ve been a Christian all my life, but it’s hard to say exactly if you can put everything in God’s hands unless it just comes down to that fact,” Hamill told Baptist Press June 7. “That’s what happened to me on the deal with being captured. I didn’t have anybody else to put it in, and I laid it in God’s hands.”
Hamill was taken hostage by Iraqi militants when his fuel convoy was ambushed April 9.
He spent 23 days in captivity, enduring surgery by Iraqis with only local anesthesia on his wounded arm. The truck driver from Macon, Miss., then escaped May 2 and was rescued by U.S. troops.
“I prayed to Him daily. I never did have any pain with my arm. That was one thing that amazed me because I prayed He’d ease up as much pain as He could,” Hamill said. “I could stand a lot if I needed to, but I prayed He’d just do what He could to ease up the pain. The whole time I was there I never did have any pain with it.”
While in a confined space, sometimes with shackles on his hands, Hamill asked God to shield him and send angels to watch over him.
“And that’s exactly what He did,” Hamill said. “I never was afraid the whole time I was there. I asked for Him to keep my faith, keep me from being afraid and just get me through this.”
Hamill said he didn’t know how long he was going to be held captive, but he was confident God had a day in the future set aside to let him go free, whether it was a day, month or year away. In the meantime, Hamill told God he would be praying, and he knew his family at home was praying as well.
One day Hamill heard U.S. helicopters flying over the shack where he was being held, and he believed that might be the day the Lord had chosen to set him free. He pried open the door and ran out to the field, waving his shirt. The troops did not see him, and he turned to go back to the makeshift prison, thinking that must not be how God planned the escape.
“I kind of felt like when I escaped that first time and had to go put myself back in the building, I told myself the Lord doesn’t want the soldiers or anyone else to break in and find me,” he said. “He wants me and Him to do this together and me to get out and go to them, and that’s exactly what happened.”
Hamill’s captors moved him several times after that incident, and he ended up inside a hut in a remote village about 40 miles from where he was captured. Soon, he heard the rumble of diesel engines, the kind driven by U.S. troops. He looked out and saw the Humvees moving along with soldiers on foot. After breaking free, he ran to meet them.
Psalm 23:4, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil,” is the verse Hamill clung to while captive, and it calmed his fears.
“I prayed that every day,” he said. “I knew I was in a situation where anyone could be afraid, and for some reason I never was afraid. I knew He was there with me and I knew He was going to be there to protect me. I looked back on the Book of Job. He told Satan he could do whatever he wanted to with [Job] to try to change his faith, but He said he couldn’t kill him. I think that’s kind of what my situation was. The devil had me, but He wasn’t going to let him kill me. He got me through this situation and brought me home.”
Now that Hamill is home with his family, he is still recovering from his arm wound.
A rod was inserted June 4, and doctors say if the Iraqis had not performed surgery on him, he probably would have lost his arm.
Hamill also said the eight months he was away from his family have not really changed their closeness. They were already accustomed to separation.
“We’re just country people. I drove a truck for years. I can be gone for months and come back in and it’s just like I just walked in from the day before. That’s just pretty much how we are.”
Early Return
“I told Kellie I wasn’t supposed to see her for six months after I left when she had her surgery and here I am back home three months early,” Hamill said, referring to his brief trip home in February when his wife had emergency heart surgery.
And though much attention has been given to his story, Hamill emphasized the importance of continued prayer for those who are still in harm’s way in Iraq.
“We need to be praying. Two of my friends are still missing — Timothy Bell and William Bradley. And the soldier, Matt Maupin, is still over there. We haven’t heard a thing from them,” Hamill said of those who are believed to be captives.
“There are still soldiers dying over there every day and are being wounded. Pray for all of them.”
Hamill also urged prayer for the Iraqi people, that they would come to understand Americans are there to make life better for them, not to harm them.
Hamill has said he would be willing to go back to Iraq because he stands behind President Bush’s vision for the country.
But the decision will be made after talks with his family and after he fully recovers.
For now, Hamill is grateful for the lessons he has learned. “My life has been changed. I always wondered how I could be a born-again Christian. I didn’t have a real life-changing experience until this,” he told BP.
“I guess when something like this happens, you have to put it completely in the Lord’s hands,” he said. (BP)
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