Robber returns wallet, cell phone after victim says prayer out loud

The power of prayer has prompted a robber to return the wallet and cell phone of a hotel worker whom he just robbed at gunpoint in Euclid, Ohio.

Shaquille Hairston, 21, said he just gotten off a bus at around 3a.m. at the Cleveland-Euclid border after finishing his shift at a hotel when a fellow passenger followed him and robbed him at gunpoint.

"He stopped me. He said 'Aye bruh' and I turned around and he pulled out a gun and said 'gimme everything you got," said Hairston, according to Fox 8 Cleveland.

He told the robber that he didn't have anything to give him.

"I told him, I was like, 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.

The robber raised his gun and told him "I'll shoot you. I'm not playing with you, man."

Hairston, who attends the New Direction Church of God of Christ in Cleveland, handed him his wallet and cell phone and 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 wake up on the other side," he said.

Hairston also began praying for the robber and his family and invited him to his church.

Suddenly and unexpectedly, the robber became flustered with the prayer, apologised to him and returned his belongings.

"He said 'man, you're like really blessed' and I said 'no, you're blessed' and I said 'I'll be praying for you and your family; and then he was like 'ok' and he shook my hand and he went about his way," Hairston said.

He added, "My concern has been on him, and that God will touch his heart and tender his heart so he won't even feel that he have to do that."

related articles
Waiting for answer to your prayer? Emulate Jesus, Bethel Music says

Worship community Bethel Music believes that people should always try to emulate Jesus, and when it comes to waiting for prayers to be answered, no one else best exemplifies the value of patience more than the Savior.

Britain\'s Got Talent finalist: \'I just prayed that God\'s will be done\'
Britain's Got Talent finalist: 'I just prayed that God's will be done'

A Welsh vicar who came close to winning Britain's Got Talent in the Côr Glanaethwy choir has described how he prayed for God's will to be done to cope with the stress in the run-up to the final.

\'The Lord is out there\': Single mom prays for new car; stranger pays for it in full
'The Lord is out there': Single mom prays for new car; stranger pays for it in full

The power of prayer stunned a 32-year-old single mother from Asheville, North Carolina, when she got the biggest surprise of her life: A total stranger volunteered to buy her a new car right after she prayed for it.

Pray as you go: Instapray app takes spirituality online
Pray as you go: Instapray app takes spirituality online

Finding time to pray in a digital age can be tricky, but an app released earlier this year has connected the two. Instapray encourages users to share and request their prayers with an online community, and now has users from 195 countries.

News
Faith in difficult times: lessons from 1930s Britain
Faith in difficult times: lessons from 1930s Britain

Architectural historian Steven Brindle talks to Christian Today about the faith that shaped 1930s Britain, the churches that supported struggling communities and what lessons the decade might have for us today.

Campaign aims to mobilise 500,000 Christians for Christmas outreach
Campaign aims to mobilise 500,000 Christians for Christmas outreach

Shine Your Light is aiming to mobilise half a million Christians to share the gospel with five million people across the UK this Christmas, with more than 2,000 churches already signed up, organisers say.

The Church of England should repent for previous calls to ban 'conversion therapy'
The Church of England should repent for previous calls to ban 'conversion therapy'

The Church of England's uneasiness about the government's ‘conversion practices’ bill is a perfect lesson in the old adage, 'be careful what you wish for,' writes Dr Martin Davie.

Leaked Home Office report links 'Christian extremism' to traditionalist beliefs and immigration concerns
Leaked Home Office report links 'Christian extremism' to traditionalist beliefs and immigration concerns

An internal Home Office report lists concerns about immigration, multiculturalism and changing social values among the characteristics associated with what it calls "Christian extremism", it has been reported.