DIVINE INTERVENTIONS: Rescued and Restored

In this episode, Brent Teague, shares his harrowing experience of being shot by rebel soldiers in Niger and the series of divine interventions that saved his life. Brent recounts how, after being left for dead in the desert, he experienced a series of remarkable miracles, including the timely arrival of the gendarme and the presence of a gunshot trauma specialist who was not supposed to be there. Despite severe injuries, Brent's leg was miraculously healed, defying medical expectations. His story is a powerful testament to faith and the belief in divine intervention, offering encouragement and hope to listeners facing their own trials.

Transcript

GUEST: Brent Teague
TOPIC: Divine Interventions – Rescued and Restored
S3, E48

Brent Teague (00:00):

“You're a lucky man that you got shot this week.” And I'm like, “Really?” He said, “Any other week had you been shot, I wouldn't be here to save you. There was a typographical error on my orders. I'm supposed to be on the Chadian border, and they sent me here to the Mali border. And so, he said I'm 2000 kilometers away from where I'm supposed to be, you know, with paperwork, it takes about a week to get this stuff taken care of. So,” he said, “you chose the right week to get shot.”

Ric Shields (00:34):

Thank you for joining us on this episode. I'm Ric Shields. I serve as your host and the director of the DoorWays® Ministry Network.

(00:39):

I'm glad for the opportunity to speak again with my friend Brent Teague. Last week we spoke about how he was shot and left to die by rebel soldiers along a desert road in the country of Niger. Today we're going to talk about some unbelievable miracles. I really don't like using that term, “unbelievable miracles,” because I do believe in miracles. Maybe we should say some “remarkable” or “inexplicable” or “extraordinary things” that happened to save your life.

(01:10):

Thanks, Brent, for joining me again on this episode.

Brent Teague (01:13):

Thank you, Ric, for inviting me. And thank you for giving me this opportunity to share how God intervened in in my life. And I wouldn't be here today speaking with you and sharing if God hadn't have done some incredible miracles for me.

Ric Shields (01:28):

For those who may not have heard our previous episode, Brent Teague was shot by rebel assailants while driving down a desert road in the country of Niger. He was shot. The passengers in his vehicle were victimized and terrorized.

(01:42):

While Brent was laying in the desert, bleeding profusely from his wounds, the Holy Spirit spoke to him and said, “Who told you your mission in Niger is over?” Now, I have reason to believe my reply may have been different than yours, <laugh>. There were a number of miracles or divine interventions which began to fall into place. Let's pick up your story from you lying in the desert and waiting for God to work on your behalf.

Brent Teague (02:06):

Well, when the Lord spoke to me and I heard his voice and he asked me that question, it really surprised me because I honestly thought this divine peace that had come over me, I thought I interpreted it as I was getting ready to go into heaven and his presence. And so, then when he spoke to me and I realized, “oh, it's, it's not over until God says it's over.” And so, then I just responded to the Lord and said, “Lord, I'm, I'm willing to serve more on this earth. I'm willing to continue to serve, but you're going to have to do some major miracles in a hurry.”

Ric Shields (02:37):

And God, by the way, if I survive this and, and there's still mission some work for me to do, Hawaii sounds like a great place. I mean, I really like Switzerland, Austria's really cool. Italy would be good. I'm willing to serve, but maybe we could consider relocation.

Brent Teague (02:55):

So, I, and the thing is I was surprised then about five minutes after that prayer, I heard the sound of an engine. And what I didn't know is that God had already started his intervention even before I was ever shot because I found out later from the, from the gendarmerie.

(03:13):

So, in French speaking countries, we don't have state troopers, we have gendarmes. And so, here's this heavily armed group of gendarmes that are showing up about five minutes after the Lord spoke to me. It's been about 15, 20 minutes since I've been shot. The people that were in my car had barely had time to get to the highway when the gendarmes showed up. And so, we're, I'm surprised and thought, “Wow, how did they get here so quickly?” And we discovered later that there had been a phone call made to the national gendarmarie in the capital city 30 minutes before I was ever attacked, informing them that I had been shot. I was critically wounded and given my location, my coordinates in the desert where I'd been dumped.

Ric Shields (03:53):

This is incredible.

Brent Teague (03:55):

This timeline because after the event, the US Embassy even went with the national police out to where I had been shot. You know, they went out to the, all the way out to where they'd taken me off road. They interviewed the villagers that were there as to as to the time of the attack. They interviewed the people in the car with me. They interviewed me as well. And everybody said the same, gave the same time. And the reason they were working on the timeline is because the call to the capitol city was recorded, so they knew what time that call was made, and they dispatched the rescue squad. And so, it's a real mystery. Like they know the, these guys that were attacking me didn't call in. So where did this call come from? And it happened before the event ever happened.

Ric Shields (04:40):

And so, you’re 45 minutes into the desert, probably. I mean, I don't know how far you were in the desert from there. Maybe an hour.

Brent Teague (04:45):

Thirty minutes. They wouldn't have gotten to me 20 minutes after, after being shot. And I mean, God's timing was perfect to this day. The official police report in Niger, they just, their conclusion as far as the time, how the phone call came earlier than the attack. So, their conclusion was, “Allah was with this man.” That's actually their conclusion on the report. And so, God was with me.

(05:09):

So that was the first miracle. Of course, I'm happy to see these guys pick me up. And they picked me up and they put me in the back of the truck and hauled me back to the main road. And then they stopped the vehicle and transferred me over to this vehicle because they wanted to follow the tracks of my vehicle to go after the guys that had stolen, had shot me and had stolen my vehicle.

(05:28):

So, they transfer me to another vehicle and they take me to Tillaberi to the small hospital that's there while they're going to go after those that attacked us. And that was a brutal ride into the city. They get me to the hospital and put me up on this kind of cement slab thing. Guy starts cutting my pants leg off. And man, when saw my leg

Ric Shields (05:47):

A cement slab cement, this is, this is the gurney? The bed is a cement slab. I guess it's easier to clean, isn't it? You just wash that off, you don't have to use.

Brent Teague (05:58):

Yeah, that's right. I and then I'm surprised because this guy, he is like he's clamping off the bleeding. He's, he's cleaning out my leg. I've got everything that was in the car doors in my leg, metal and foam and plastic and all kinds of shrapnel from the car doors. So, he's operating on me and I'm watching it. I mean, I didn't pass out. I'm watching and I see this guy's really. And I looked at him and I'm a little surprised and I said, “Are you a doctor?” Because that clinic normally didn't have a doctor on duty. They had an RN that ran the clinic. And then they would have doctors come like once a quarter or sometimes like once a year, they'd have surgeons rotate through.

(06:34):

He looked at me and smiled and kind of laughed. And he said, “Well, yes, I am a doctor.” He said, “More importantly, I'm the man that's going to save your life.” And then he proceeded to tell me that he was one of the only gunshot trauma specialists in the country. He's a surgeon and he’s in the military.

(06:47):

And then this was when I discovered miracle number two, because he's not supposed to be there. He says, “You're a lucky man that you got shot this week.” And I'm like, “Really?” He goes, “Oh yeah,” he said, “Any other week had you been shot, I wouldn't be here to save you. He said, there was a typographical error on my orders. I'm supposed to be on the Chadian border. And they sent me here to the Mali border. And so,” he said, “I'm 2000 kilometers away from where I'm supposed to be. But he said, you know, with paperwork, it takes about a week to get this stuff taken care of. So, he said, you chose the right week to get shot.”

Ric Shields (07:21):

“Good thing you got shot this week?” Wow. That’s crazy.

(07:25):

And so, here's this guy that's there that shouldn't be there. Let me just do this. You're listening to the DoorWays® Ministry Network podcast. My name is Ric Shields. I'm joined on this episode with Brent Teague.

(07:39):

Twenty years ago, armed Rebels shot Brent while he was driving on a remote desert road in Niger. But God had arranged a series of divine interventions to save Brent's life and to encourage the body of Christ in Niger, the United States and around the world. And truth be told, there is probably Miracle #1, Miracle #1A, Miracle #1B, there are likely more miracles than we can fully comprehend. But the story you will often tell, you talk about not just one miracle of the police or however you do, you pronounce it what?

Brent Teague (08:16):

Gendarmes

Ric Shields (08:17):

Yeah, yeah. That those guys, the state police <laugh>, and they show up and they've been advised 30 minutes before the event happened at least. And all of a sudden, they were on the scene within five minutes after this all happened. And then they take you on a very painful ride to Tillaberi to a hospital where there's a physician that's trained in gunshot trauma that's not supposed to be there. So that's miracle number one. There's miracle number two, but there's a third miracle you talk about. Tell us about what or, you know, in whatever order you want to tell it. Brent, it's your story, not mine. I'm just excited. I'm too excited.

Brent Teague (08:56):

Well, so then after he does this operation there and he builds this brace for my leg and everything, he tells me that my injuries are so severe, I've got to be moved to the national hospital and to the capital. And of course I'm sitting here thinking, “Okay, this is going to be another long delay” because at this time, the hospital up there didn't have a working ambulance. They had an ambulance there, I mean, I've been going up there for months. But the ambulance that they had there was on blocks. I mean, it didn't have an engine in it. I mean, it was like a decoration <laugh>. And so, I'm, “Okay, it's going to take an hour and a half, you know, or two hours to get an ambulance up here to pick me up” and all that.

(09:30):

So, I'm, and I'm doing these calculations in my mind and then all of a sudden, they're wheeling me out and they put me in and they had…The government had sent them, they just received a brand-new ambulance. I'm one of the first patients in it.

Ric Shields (09:41):

You're kidding.

Brent Teague (09:42):

So they put me in the ambulance and yeah. And so I'm, I'm there ready to go. And but the ambulance, I expected, you know, the driver to jump in and all this and sirens to go and us to take off. And I'm just sitting in this ambulance looking at the ceiling and after about 15 minutes, the door opens, this head pops in, and it's the governor of the province. And he's, he's letting me know how sorry he is that I got attacked in his province and that they're doing everything they can to recover my vehicle. So I thanked him, and then the door closes.

(10:09):

And then about 10 minutes later the door opens again, and now it's the commander of the Niger Northern Army. And this colonel telling me that he's so sorry that I got shot in his province. And that <laugh>, he's got his boots… While I’m just sitting here thinking, “I just, I don't understand why this vehicle's not moving.”

(10:28):

And so, he closes the door and then a few minutes later the door opens, and it's one of the student pastors that had been in the vehicle with me when we got shot up there. And he pops in and then, and he said, “Pastor, is everything okay?” I said, “Well, it would be better if this ambulance were moving.” I said, “Don't close the door. Tell me what's going on.” And he says, “No, we got it taken care of.” He says there's no gasoline, but he says, “We've searched the town and we found enough gasoline to get you to the capital city. We're filling the ambulance right now.”

(10:55):

So, these are little things, you know, things that you would take for granted in America, you know, not having fuel in a city would not be generally an issue we have to deal with. But just having done enough gasoline in the town to get me to the capital, I mean, these are little miracles, but they make all the difference in the world.

Ric Shields (11:11):

Absolutely.

Brent Teague (11:12):

And so then off we go, and I don't know how, with all the trauma and everything, how I stayed conscious the whole time, but as we're coming into the capital city, the driver looks over his shoulder, the ambulance driver, and he says to me, he says, “Pastor where am I supposed to take you?” <Laugh>? And so, I'm like, I'm like, “Would you have a cell phone?” I said, “I don’t know,”

Ric Shields (11:32):

“Can I sit up and I can give you directions so I can see where you're at?” <laugh>?

Brent Teague (11:36):

I said, “If you have a cell phone, I'll call my wife.” And so, my, my wife had been informed, one of the pastors that had been with me had called her and told her that I had been shot and everything and she wanted to come in our other vehicle. And they're like, no, no, don't come. And in, in West African culture, you don't announce a death over the phone. You do it by delegation.

(11:53):

So, Shelly doesn't know by what they've told her on the phone, if I'm alive or dead, she just knows it's bad. But by faith, she's made arrangements. We had one of our members of the church who was a retired military officer. And so, he had helped Shelly make arrangements at the French military hospital in Miami. So, when I get shelling the phone, she hears my voice, she knows I'm alive.

(12:15):

And I said, “Where's this ambulance supposed to take me?” And she says, “French military hospital.” So that's what I tell the driver. And so, he heads in that direction and they get me there and they wheel me in. My wife arrives a few minutes later and she follows the blood trail to the room that I was in. They do these x-rays and everything. They come and tell me, “Your leg is, we can't fix it here.” They said, “we're going to have to operate to get you in good enough shape to evacuate you to Europe.”

(12:41):

I never wanted to be operated on at the National Hospital of Niger. But you know, one of the things, there are things that you do that the Lord helps you to do. We had, we had received medical teams from In His Image in Tulsa. And we had a medical cooperation.

(12:58):

We'd set up with surgeons from Tulsa with the National Hospital when Hillcrest Hospital changed out its surgery suites. A lot of their equipment was donated to the hospital in Niger. And I remember taking all this orthopedic stuff, and I never dreamed that I would be in one of those surgery suites that was provided through a donation from In His Image partnership to there. And so some of that equipment that I helped transport now is being used to save my life.

(13:30):

And so, they operated on me at the national hospital. And another miracle, unbeknownst to me, the president of the country Mohamadu Issoufou, who was president at that time, he sent his personal medical team to operate on me in the middle of the night at the, at the hospital. They did this operation and reconnected tendons.

(13:49):

And we have pictures of it all because there was a French missionary who had the same blood type as me that was in the operating room in case they needed blood. Shelly came in with a digital camera. So, he took pictures of everything. But after the operation I had to be medically evacuated to Paris.

(14:06):

And so, we had to leave our girls behind. because There was only room for Shelly on the plane with me. And at the hospital in Paris, when they did the X-rays and everything, they determined that the leg was irreparable and that it needed to be amputated all day long. They were trying to get my wife to sign an amputation order, but Shelly, because of all the miracles that had happened, just could not sign the paper. And she kept telling the doctor, “I can't sign this.”

(14:30):

He's like, “Well, he'll never be able to use this leg, and you'll be doing him a disfavor if you, if we don't amputate, we're going to try to save as much bone as possible.” So finally, Shelly says, “You know, I'm not going to sign the order.” But he said, “Well, if there's an infection in the bone, we don't need your permission. We can go ahead and amputate,” he said. “Well, if you need to amputate to save his life, then that's one thing, but I'm not going to sign an amputation order.”

(14:51):

And so, I was there for like, I don't know, eight, nine hours. They finally decided to take me in. They kept coming in and checking my temperature every hour or so. So, they have this conveyor belt type thing that takes the patient into the operating rooms. They put me on this conveyor belt. And yeah, I had never seen anything like, it was like <laugh> a luggage conveyor belt, but it's,

Ric Shields (15:12):

Now, we have a place called Sushi Train here in Tulsa, and it's probably not anywhere near like that.

Brent Teague (15:21):

So, this belt takes me in, and then they transfer me straight from the belt onto the operating table. And because I had served, you know, I've been working with these surgery teams from America interpreting for them. I knew kind of how their operating theater is set up. And I looked over at the instrument table and I saw the saws that were there. And as they're putting me under, I remember telling the Lord, thanking the Lord for my life and thanking the Lord for the opportunity to continue to serve. And I just said to the Lord, I said, “If you want me to preach on one leg, I'll preach on one leg but thank you for giving me more time to serve you.”

(15:55):

And then I expected to wake up with the leg gone, and I woke up and my leg is still there, but there's this fixator, they've drilled holes, there's metal protruding everywhere. There's a metal handle on the top of my leg and

(16:07):

<laugh>. And I had a very upset French surgeon, and he told me my wife had done me a great disservice. The leg can't be fixed and they can't do anything more for me in Europe because I had refused their amputation. So, so they were going to transfer me to the United States for further care because couldn't do any there for me.

(16:24):

So, I was there about eight days until my blood levels were good. And then I got shipped to the US and ended up in Oklahoma City. The surgeon there was one of the only ones that would take my case for my type of injury. A lot of your, you know, knee type stuff. The doctors are good in Colorado for that because of all those ski injuries. But the guy that took my case, he's a surgeon. He doesn't just do artificial knees, he rebuilds legs from motorbike injuries, motor motorbike accidents.

(16:54):

So, I mean, this is from a gunshot, but still it's, you know, the way it was, this all messed up. So he was the one that was going to operate. But he comes in and he shows me the X-rays. And he tells me, he says, “This leg medically speaking is irreparable. There are just parts of the bone that aren't there.” And he said, “I'm going to operate, put a titanium plate in your leg.” And he said, “I'm going to pin the parts to it.” But he, he showed me, he said, “There's going to be gaps.” And he said, “it just won't heal.” But he said, “I'm a believer like you are.” And he said, “If God causes bone to grow where it normally doesn't grow,” and he says, “God can do this,” he said. “We're going to give God three months.”

(17:30):

And he said, “We're going to do another X-ray, and if God causes bone to grow, you'll keep your leg,” he said. “Otherwise, we'll have to amputate. And because of the fixator that was put in, you're going to lose more bone than, than you would have.”

(17:42):

And he said, “But there is good news. We found your kneecap!” I was like, “Excuse me?” He said, “Yeah, when the bullet went through your knee, it knocked the, it knocked your kneecap around to the backside of your leg. And despite all of the operations and you being moved and everything, the kneecap was tucked into some tissue and its remained viable. It's good to go.” So, I didn't realize how important it was, but he said, “Yeah, this is a very important piece to the puzzle.”

(18:06):

They operated on me. And for three months we prayed, went back in for an X-ray, and the doctor came in and he said, “I don't know who's praying for you. Tell them to stop.” I said, “What do you mean?” He said, “I have never seen such growth, bone growth since I've been a surgeon. All the void is gone. Your knee is the bones back where it had been blown out.” He said, “It's all grown back. In fact, now we're going to have to operate.”

(18:31):

He said, “to reshape the, reshape the knee for you to have flexion, because there's so much bone growth.” He said, “We have more than we need.”

Ric Shields (18:41):

Bhis is, this is just absolutely amazing.

Brent Teague (18:43):

We ended up having several surgeries just to, you know, be able to get flexion and all of that and to reshape the bone. And then my body rejected all of the hardware. They ended up taking all the hardware out. So, I don't have any hardware in my leg now. No pens, no plate. I still have, at least they make good parts. I still have Toyota shrapnel in my knee <laugh>. But other than that, everything's gone and I've got full use of my leg back.

(19:09):

The Lord has, and when people do an X-ray, now they have to really look to see where all the damage was. And what most people notice is I lost muscle mass from on the leg from where, you know, the bullets went through. And so, the muscle bulges there. But other than that, I'm fully functional and

Ric Shields (19:29):

It is amazing

Brent Teague (19:30):

Miracle after miracle. Divine intervention. 

Ric Shields (19:34):

Now these sound like coincidences. Come on. Just the right people in just the right place at just the right time.

Brent Teague (19:38):

The right place, right time, right surgeons, I mean, a lot of people have, I mean. I had a friend that had a motorbike accident. What he went through with his leg. And I, and that's when I realized what all God did for that leg to heal the way it did. It was, it was a divine intervention.

(19:53):

I remember my wife was praying that because when she saw how the Lord was healing the bone and all that, she actually prayed and asked the Lord to heal the scars. And the Lord told her, he said, “I'm leaving the scars as a testimony. And I can't tell how many times I've shared this testimony and people want to see the scars.”

(20:09):

I was sharing my testimony in El Paso one time, and this guy, he was not, not a believer. He came up and he said, “show me the scars.” And when I showed him, he, he's like, yeah. And then he pulled up his shirt and showed me his, his scars from where he had been wounded in a drug deal. So <laugh>. But the Lord, those scars to people see it and they like, wow. And so, I the Lord for, I thank him today for the scars because of the souls that have come into the kingdom.

Ric Shields (20:37):

I was going to ask the question, you've been marked with physical scars and, Brent, I don't know, if it were me, there'd be some psychological and emotional scars, too. But we're all marked in one way or another. Some marks are good, some marks are bad. But this event has not just impacted you, but it's impacted scores, hundreds, perhaps thousands of others just to hear your story. It's incredible.

(21:09):

I'd like to ask you, Brent, to pray for our listeners. I hope there are those who've heard your story, that have been encouraged by what God did for you. But while you are a beneficiary of his goodness and faithfulness, miracles are intended to display the glory and the majesty of God and to encourage the body of Christ. Still, we believe for a miracle in our lives, knowing he loves us and that he'll use his power in us in order to express his care to others through us. So, I'm convinced there are listeners who need a breakthrough in their lives, maybe a breakthrough in their family or their business or their church, whatever their unique situation may be.

(21:51):

So, Brent, would you please pray for us as we pray together with you?

Brent Teague (21:57):

I'd love to Ric. Dear Lord, we just come before you today and we thank you, Lord, that you have not changed. You're the same yesterday, today and forever. And Lord, you are God of miracles and you are a God of divine interventions.

(22:10):

And we thank you Lord, that you know us, you know our lives. You see our difficulties and our struggles. And Lord, you are there to help us. You are there to restore. You're there to rebuild, you're there to heal, you're there to deliver. And Lord, I just pray right now for any of our listeners that are struggling, that are going through a trial right now, going through impossible situation and that need a miracle, Lord, I pray that you would build their faith now and help them to believe Lord, and to know that you have not changed. And that Lord, nothing is impossible for you.

(22:44):

And Lord, what you did for me and how you intervened in my life and in my physical body, Lord, you can do for them as well. And I just pray, Lord, that you would tell them that you would minister to them, that you would bring healing to them, and that you would bring deliverance to them and that you would glorify your name. And we give you all the thanks for it, Lord. And we praise your name today in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Ric Shields (23:09):

Try to imagine if you can, being Brent Teague, laying on a cement slab at the hospital in the desert city of Tillaberi, Niger. You've been shot twice in the leg with an AK-47 by rebel insurgents. Your colleagues have been victimized and terrorized. You've been left to die in the desert and then miraculously found by a rescue squad that was dispatched from the capital 30 minutes before even being shot.

(23:37):

Now as you lay there, attended by a trauma surgeon who wasn't really supposed to be there, and who says to you, “You picked the right week to get shot.”

(23:47):

You, my friend, are valuable to your Heavenly Father. When I think of this story, I'm reminded of Jesus telling his disciples, “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies, yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.”

(24:11):

Your plight is not unseen or unknown to God. And though we may not understand or even appreciate the timing of all that's happening in our lives, we can rest knowing He cares for us more than we can ever imagine.

(24:26):

I hope Brent Teague's story has encouraged you. I know it's encouraged me, and I hope others to whom I have related this story.

(24:34):

Thanks for listening. I look forward to being with you next week.