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EMM workers shot at and robbed in Guatemala
CHAMELCO, Guatemala – Two masked gunmen fired a shotgun at Eastern Mennonite Missions worker Zachary Wolgemuth on the evening of May 9, when he went outside to investigate a barking dog. Zach and his wife Annie live near the campus of the Bezalel Mennonite School.
Zach said he felt the rush of the shot past his head. The intruders were only ten feet away in the dark. Zach yelled for help and banged on the house door. When he realized it had locked behind him, he ran to the home of the watchman who lived nearby.
Annie, who heard the shot, yell, and knock, unknowingly opened the door to admit the robbers. The two masked men brushed Annie aside and snatched a radio and about $10 in cash from her purse, but left without taking other valuables.
Annie grabbed a cell phone and barricaded herself in the bathroom, from which she called Galen Groff, mission representative for EMM, who lives about five miles away. Groff, who had just left the Wolgemuths' house about 15 minutes earlier after a team meeting, returned immediately and helped to locate Zach.
“The most difficult minutes were during the time neither Zach nor Annie knew what had happened to the other one,” Groff said in a debriefing session the morning of May 10. “We are deeply grateful no one was injured physically and very little of value was stolen.” Groff also noted that random violence and petty robbery are common occurrences in the region. Zach and Annie spent the rest of the night in the home of Galen and Phyllis Groff.
Steve Shank, EMM’s representative to Latin America, was in El Salvador at the time of the crisis. He made immediate plans to travel to Guatemala for further counsel and debriefing with the Wolgemuths.
“Please pray for the well-being of Zach and Annie and others who have been affected by this experience,” Shank said in a phone conversation May 10.
After arriving in Guatemala last year, the Wolgemuths spent time studying the K’ekchi’ language with a local family. More recently, Zach has been overseeing the construction of a new girls’ dorm on the campus of Bezalel. Annie has been hosting the Mennonite Central Committee "Work and Learn Teams" that come to assist with the construction, and she has been supervising the work of Threads of Hope, a weavers’ co-op.
The Wolgemuths, members of Chiques Church of the Brethren in Manheim, Pa., began a three-year term of service in Guatemala with EMM in January 2004.
– Jewel Showalter
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