Carjacked!

Two words shot through Esther Green's mind as she was about to go visit a friend  "Don't go,"  but she ignored those words. If it hadn't have been for her cell phone and some quick thinking, she and her baby might never have made it back alive.

Esther Green's day had started out normally enough. She and her daughter, Victoria, were going to visit a friend, Musanna Hoskins, in a nearby neighborhood. Just as she was leaving, Esther said she received a sudden impression in her mind.

Here I had planned for the last hour to leave the house, get the baby together, getting her diaper bag together, getting myself together, keys already in hand, and something says, Just stay home. And I thought, 'I will just go and talk with my friend for an hour.' I ignored that voice and headed out the door."

After their visit, Musanna needed to run a few errands around town. Esther decided she would drive her so that they could spend more time together. While Musanna was in the store making photocopies, Victoria dropped her juice cup. Esther climbed into the back seat to retrieve it.

And thats when I heard the front door open, says Esther. So, when I looked up and I say this stranger, a strange, white male sitting there, a young guy, my heart just dropped. I froze and I just felt myself just beginning to almost pass out. I grabbed his arm and I said, What are we doing? And he said, We are going over here for a moment. And he puts the car into drive and begins to pull out.

Right as I turned around to exit the store is when I realized the car was pulling off of the curb," Musanna recalls, "so I couldnt understand why she was leaving, how she was leaving. I didnt know where she was going, and I just said, 'Maybe she is just going down to the store.'

Meanwhile, Esther was trying to defend herself against her attacker. And I thought to myself, 'He is just going to take me without anyone knowing.' So without thinking, I threw myself over the seat, jammed him in the face, and I grabbed the steering wheel and started blowing the horn.

Musanna watched as Esther struggled with the car. It was swerving back and forth, the horn was honking, and this fear just came into me and I just couldnt believe it.

Musanna called her husband, Derek, to confirm what she thought she had seen. The minute he heard my voice, he knew what had happened and he said, Musanna, hang up and call 911.

Esther continued to resist the carjacker. Then I heard my little girl. She made a little noise, kind of like a whimper; she didn't really cry. And that just hit me. And the thought came into my mind, If he shoots you right now, what's going to happen to your little girl? That made me stop fighting, stop pleading, and I just sat back in the seat behind the driver, and I looked down, and theres the cell phone in the diaper bag and I grabbed the phone and I am thinking that I have to call my husband and tell him that I love him, but my fingers just dialed 911.

When I first answered the phone, I assumed it would be a domestic situation, because we do have a lot of those," says 911 operator Holly Eason who picked up Esther's call. "All I heard was her screaming. In a lot of domestic situations, they will only yell at each other and you have to gain control of the caller. So that was what I was trying to do at the first part was I was trying to get control of her to get her to talk to me to get her to tell me where she was."

Then Esther says she began to scream and cry at the same time. Please, where are we going to go, in the name of Jesus? In the name of Jesus, we can't go very far, come on please, I have a baby in this car," she said to the 911 operator.

Esther couldn't really hear if the call had really gone through.

Musanna's 911 call came in a minute after Esther's call. And this is what Musanna told the 911 operator: " Hi. My girlfriend has a brand-new Mercedes. I believe it's a 1999 or a 2000 . I believe she and her baby are in a car that was stolen was car and they are abducted.

"And that's when we all realized what we had was a carjacking, kidnapping situation," recalls Holly.

Musanna remembers falling to her knees in prayer, asking God to keep Esther safe.

Esther began praying too. She says he felt an overwhelming sense of calm in her spirit. "I was no longer afraid. It was like a script was just pulled in front of me. And I began to call out landmarks."

"The first landmark she gave was Belles Beaus," says Holly. "As soon as she said Belles Beaus, I knew exactly where she was at."

Esther continued giving out clues to her location by constantly questioning the carjacker. Holly Eason was busy relaying the car's position to law enforcement in each jurisdiction. From Esther's questioning, Holly learned they were headed down 314 towards the airport.

"So I was just, you know, praying the whole time that someone was hearing me and that someone was able to pick up on the clues that I was giving. The whole time I just kept on calling out the name of Jesus," says Esther.

Eventually, Esther's prayers annoyed the carjacker, and she recalls his reaction: " He held his hands over his ears, saying, 'Stop saying that. Stop saying that. Just sit back and be quiet.' "

By now, Musanna's husband, Derek, had joined her at the copy store. Derek was faced with breaking the bad news to Esther's husband, Victor, who was out of town. Victor, a pro football defensive back, had just finished working out with his team, the New York Jets.

"I was like, 'What?' I was like, 'Just tell me you're playing,'" says Victor. "He's like, 'No, man, they trying to locate her right now and I'll call you back.' And so right after that, I just said, 'I have to call my father-in-law.'"

Esther's father, Reverend Michael Patterson, remembers getting that phone call. "I said, 'What is the matter, Victor?' He said, 'Esther's been kidnapped and car-jacked with the baby.'"

"I felt so helpless, my family there. I'm supposed to be a provider and a protector, and I couldn't do anything," Victor confesses.

Esther's father began to do what he knew how to do best: he interceded in prayer. Both he and Victor prayed prayers to end the spiritual warfare over his daughter's life. "I prayed a prayer that took authority over Satan's works, binding his work and rebuking Satan and commanding confusion to come upon the attackers, and believe in God to give strength to my daughter at that time."

"I just knew that I had to survive," says Esther. "That's all I knew. I looked over at my little girl and I kept on telling her, 'The angels are with us. The angels are with us. Everything's okay.'"

But Esther didn't really know for sure whether or not her call had gone through and if help was on the way. When the carjacker was forced to slow down for traffic, she saw it as an opportunity to escape.

"I was able to slip the baby out of the car seat," says Esther, "and I was preparing to jump. And I grabbed her tightly, and I cupped her head with my hand. And I was praying at the same time, 'If we jump, please protect us."'

The carjacker pulled over, and Esther was ready to jump. But another man slid into the back seat with her.

Just as Esther was beginning to feel helpless, two police cars zoomed past. The next thing Esther knew was that another police car appeared in the lane beside and slightly behind the car she was in, propelling Esther into action.

"I could see them pulling up, trying to look into the car. I lifted the baby up a little bit into the window and I started saying, 'Oh, my God, there's a police officer. I could I get my baby and me out of the car and to the police?

They pulled over and the police came to the rescue. 911 operator Holly Eason's father was one of the arresting officers.

"At that time, when they yelled for the perpetrators to get on the ground, I heard my father's voice," says Holly. "I still wasn't sure if they had weapons or not, so I was just praying that they all were going to be safe."

Thankfully, the suspects were unarmed.

Esther began praising Jesus for her rescue. "I jumped out of that car, raised my hands praising God, holding on to my little girl."

When a police officer told Musanna the news that they had everyone in custody and that Esther and Victoria were safe, Musanna says she felt completely overwhelmed with praise and thanks to God.

Derek called Victor with the good news. Victor then told Esther's father.

"He said, 'Dad, they've been rescued! They've been rescued! They've been rescued!' And we just began to praise the Lord immediately, because right after that prayer, the prayer was answered," says Esther's father.

The Greens have taken every opportunity to tell the world about the delivering power of God.

"I have to definitely thank Him that He worked for me. And He was with me and my little girl that day, to rescue us, to save us from what could have been horrible circumstances. So God was definitely good the whole entire time. It was tragedy that any of it ever had to happen. But God was with me. God was definitely with me," says a very thankful Esther.