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If there is anything in this world that can pierce our imaginary safety shield and cause us to realize that we live under a false sense of security, it is the abduction and disappearance of a child. As parents, this is our worst nightmare and nothing will drive us to our knees before the Lord faster than the thought of a child in the clutches of evil.

We see reports on the news of children missing and abducted on a regular basis.  We push it from our minds because the mere thought of losing our children in this manner is too hateful to even consider. We are horrified when we read reports on kidnapped children full of statistics, such as, 3,000 to 5,000 children each year are abducted by someone outside their family, as reported by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.  We wonder if we have done enough to protect our children from this threat.

We are haunted by the faces of the families of the missing children that we get to know as their tragedy plays out on national television because, we live in a world saturated by the media. We are shocked and horrified by these details of cases such as that of Polly Klaas, who was abducted from her bed in her own home where she should have been safe.  Carlie Brucia who we watched being taken by the arm and led away on surveillance video by a man who would later murder her, and the heartbreaking details of how 9 year old Jessica Lundsford was kidnapped, sexually assaulted, then buried alive by John Couey who was later convicted and sentenced to death in Florida for his actions.

The world seems to have gone completely insane.  We live in a place where men full of evil desires prey upon the weak, vulnerable, and especially the innocent. As the world continues to grow more violent and immorality of all kinds begins to manifest itself, one must ponder the question of how much the Internet and television has accelerated our spiral downward.

The Internet is an awesome tool, full of information on any topic you choose. We are living in a time of great knowledge and information sharing. Because of the Internet the gospel of Jesus Christ is being preached throughout the entire world. With all the good it has caused it has also opened the floodgates of immorality. As is typical of this world, we seem bent on perverting anything good to serve our own self destructive and evil desires. The Internet gives man the ability to instantly gratify any sinful impulse they may have. Everything from gambling, impulse buying, entertainment of every realm, and the most evil and persuasive of all is the access it gives to sexual sin.  We have developed a technology that has provided us with an avenue to sin that we cannot handle and because of it society is being poisoned at an alarming rate.

Television is so saturated with sex that one can barely watch the Disney channel anymore without blushing.  The advertisements that supply the networks with their income exploit man’s weaknesses by using sex to sell their products. After watching a one-hour television program one finds that their mind has run rampant continually as sexual innuendos and the images of sex are virtually in every detail of the story as well as the commercials.

Charles Stanley, the esteemed preacher from Atlanta Georgia of the Intouch Ministries stated, “There are several stages to sin. First the thought enters our mind, then we begin to entertain the idea, then we start to fantasize, and then we act.”  Since we are continually bombarded with the thought of sin, we are continually in the beginning process of sinning. Weak willed men or men who do not have God as their moral compass, are being driven to act in ways that are pure evil.  It has reached the point where our children are no longer safe, sometimes not even in their own homes. There is no doubt the world is in desperate need of Jesus Christ.  His coming cannot be far off.

In 1988, Sharon Murch had her entire world turned up side down when one of her children became a victim of this unthinkable crime. At that time, Sharon was married with the last name of Garecht and living in Hayward California, which is in the San Francisco Bay area. Her life revolved around raising and loving her children, Michaela, Alex, Libby and Robbie. Michaela Garecht was only nine years old then, but was the oldest of the four children. Sharon’s family was young and their future was bright. Sure to be full of cherished moments of school plays, Christmas mornings, first dates and weddings.

On November 19^th 1988, everything changed forever. Michaela had gone to a neighborhood market with a friend. After leaving the store and heading home, Michaela was lured to a car and abducted by a stranger. Though there was a good description of the man, as well as the vehicle he was driving, he managed to slip through law enforcements hands and Michaela was lost forever.

Through the years, the police have had numerous tips and leads about Michaela Garecht’s case, but so far, there haven’t been any real answers to what happened to Michaela.  The nightmare every parent prays they will never have to experience has become a hellish reality for Sharon and her family.

In the years that followed, Sharon would find herself on a long journey searching for answers and understanding of how a loving God could allow such a terrible thing to happen.  She found herself questioning if he even existed at all.  Although Sharon was a Christian prior to Michaela’s abduction, and attended church regularly, her faith had been shaken to the core.  She no longer trusted God.

“I have always had a desire to know God since I was a little girl,” Sharon reveals. “When I was nine years old I remember asking my mother to take me to church.  I would pick up the Bible and try to read it because I wanted to understand, but I was just not able to.  There was a minister who lived beside of us when I was young who had a Bible study.  He invited my mother to join and we began going to church.  My father was in the military, so we moved quite often.  I attended thirteen schools in twelve years. Eventually we moved away and never went back to church again, but I never lost the desire in my heart for God.”

Sharon’s final move with her family would be to California, in the San Francisco Bay area, in her sophomore year of high school. “I first truly found the Lord when I was twenty years old.” Sharon explains. “I was newly married and my husband’s family was Catholic.  I started attending this little charismatic Catholic Church. It was like no Catholic Church you have probably ever been to.  The church itself was held in an old restaurant.  The masses were filled with people raising their hands in praise.”

“The way I found the Lord was by reading the Bible.  A priest told me I needed to start reading the Bible so I did, and that’s where I found God, in the Bible.  After I did find God, I eventually felt I needed to attend church elsewhere so, I ended up at an Assembly of God Church in Freemont, California.  That’s where I was attending church during the time period that Michaela was kidnapped.”

“Michaela was born on January 24^th, 1979.  I had been trying to get pregnant with her for a long time and had even taken a prescription fertility pill to help in getting pregnant”, Sharon reveals.  “So you can imagine how really special she was.  When she was born, I quit work so I could stay home with her and take care of her.”

“Michaela was a very sweet, nurturing little girl. She always said when she grew up that she wanted to be just like me, have kids and stay home to take care of them. She was the oldest child and was very loving and caring of her younger brothers and sisters.”

“Michaela was a very beautiful child”, Sharon recalls fondly.

“Michaela was a Christian and had accepted the Lord as her savior.  She had accepted the Lord at our church, but also while attending a Vacation Bible School at another local church the summer before she was kidnapped. They had a bus that would come through the neighborhood picking kids up and take them to the Bible School and Michaela would ride the bus. After Michaela was kidnapped, the people at that church were very glad that Michaela got the chance to attend and accept Christ that summer.”

It has been said that the Lord works in mysterious ways and anyone who walks with the Lord and is watchful for his hand at work knows this is true. Sometimes God warns us that we are in danger. God may intervene on our behalf with Angelic assistance or he may speak to us through the Holy Spirit within us, whispering a warning. Sadly, many times we don’t recognize His voice and miss the warning that becomes so obvious after it is too late.

 

 

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