And Jesus answering saith unto them, “Have faith in God.”
- Mark 11:22.

The story of this teenager’s survival, which she credits to her faith in God, is an inspiration:

She began praying the moment she saw the gun. She kept praying as he forced her into a truck, drove for miles, repeatedly raped her and left her for dead under branches and blackberry vines. And then, when she thought it was all over, when she was ready to die, she felt gentle hands lifting her up, carrying her to the road, setting her down where a truck driver would find her.

“For those who don’t believe in modern miracles — for those who just can’t see it — it’s time to get new glasses,” said the 18-year-old McMinnville woman’s fiance, who asked that his name not be used in order to protect her identity. The Oregonian does not name rape victims as a matter of policy.

In a phone interview Thursday night, the fiance said, “She had a guardian angel. That’s what we believe. Everything leads to God.”

The woman was abducted about 3 a.m. Monday while working as the lone night caretaker of a McMinnville group home for disabled juveniles and adults. Her attacker, police say, entered the home through an unlocked sliding glass door at the back of the home, then walked her at gunpoint to his truck.

After a 25-mile drive west to the Coast Range, police say, he raped her three times at three locations. Police say he then choked her with her own shirt, dragged her into some bushes, covered her with branches and left her for dead.

At the end of the ordeal Monday, the woman felt that “she could have just decided to lay down and die, but instead she floated to the road, or was picked up and carried to the road,” said Mike Holland, 42, a close friend chosen by the victim as a spokesman.

Doctors have said her injuries were so serious she could have died, yet she was on the side of the road when an astonished log-truck driver slammed on his brakes and picked her up at 7:45 a.m…

Please make a note of the information at the bottom of the story: The McMinnville Kidnapped Teenager Support Fund has been established to help with the woman’s therapy. Contributions can be made at any Bank of America branch.

Update: Jim Slagle comments.

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