"From Abduction to Redemption: Lauren Burns’ Story of Hope"

My guest, Lauren Burns, host of "The Redeemed Podcast," is no stranger to adversity.

Kidnapped at the age of seven and taken to Jordan by her father, Lauren’s journey of escape and survival became national news and was even adapted into a made-for-television movie. 

Today, Lauren uses her platform to share stories of hope and redemption with her listeners. 

As an advocate for faith and second chances, she believes that every story—no matter how dark—can have a redemptive ending. 

Through her podcast, Lauren provides a space for others to tell their stories of transformation, whether through faith, personal growth, or overcoming challenges 

 Isaiah 41:10
"So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."
 
Website laurenburns.net

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YouTube @laurenburnsredeemed

https://linktr.ee/laurenbredeemed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkrpBjzqVdY (Desperate Rescue the Cathy Mahone story )

https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/redeemed-podcast22/

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Transcript

Jan: Welcome everyone, to this episode of Just Talking About Jesus. I have an amazing guest here today who's going to share her story of being kidnapped by her father when she was seven.

Her Jordanian father. And so,

Lauren Burns, welcome.

Lauren: Thank you. Thank you for taking time out of your day to have me on with your audience. It's such a pleasure to do this with you today.

Jan: Oh, yes, of course.

I also want to mention, and I'll mention it again at the end, that Lauren has a podcast called Redeemed where she interviews a lot of the same type of people that we hear about here.

So you might want to take a listen to those because they're pretty fantastic.

Lauren: Thank you. Thank you for the shout out. You know, when we can share people's testimonies, we are the hands and feet of Jesus. We are just going out and planting the seed.

Jan: I think the coolest thing about all of that is that it just because there's people from all over the place,

right? All over the world. And, and it just brings your,

your people together.

You know, it's not just your own little church or your little, own little community. You've got, you know, just all of that broadness. It's just like, thank you, Jesus.

Lauren: That's the positive part of the Internet and the website. We couldn't do it if we didn't have the Internet. We hear so much negative. But, man,

when you can connect in Florida and Texas and North Carolina, Hawaii, wherever, and share God's message, it's unbelievable.

Jan: I know, I know. Just. And that's what it's about. I'm sure that, you know, you started your podcast because God asked you to.

Lauren: Yes, yes. Right?

Jan: He dropped that one on me.

Lauren: Yeah.

Jan: I want you to have a second podcast called Just Talking about Jesus. Like,

okay, but now that I'm doing it, it's like the best thing that's ever never been. So.

Lauren: I agree.

Jan: Okay, Lauren, so you were seven years old. What happened?

Lauren: Yes, so my parents, to give you a quick little background,

my mom is from Florida, she's a Christian. My father is from Jordan, near Israel,

and he is Muslim. And they met in Dallas. Texas is where they met. They were in their twenties,

both moved the Dallas area to go to college.

They were working at like a Denny's type diner place, and they fell in love.

And even though my mom was a Christian, she didn't quite care at that time about him being Muslim. You know, she's like, oh, he's handsome. This'll work.

I mean, how many of us know what that's Like.

But it didn't work.

When I was six weeks old,

I was my mom's first child,

only biological child,

and my first father. When he found out that he was going to be a dad for the first time, he had this, like, overwhelming responsibility to all of a sudden start practicing his beliefs.

And he actually went to Jordan, left my mom while she was pregnant,

told my mom that he went to Jordan to go take care of his sick father.

He was gone for three months. Can you imagine your first child not knowing what you're going to do? You're by yourself? She had no family in the Dallas area.

And three months later, he came back, and she was furious.

He told my mom that he had gone to Jordan to make a home for us. He had found a job. He wanted to raise his first child, me,

in his traditions and his faith.

And my mom freaked out, and she said, absolutely not. I don't want to move away from Texas, let alone the United States. And so by the time I was six weeks old, she was filing for divorce.

So. So there she was, a single mom trying to figure out how to do formula and diapers and all the things.

And so that's how my childhood started.

Broken, hot mess is what I say.

But, you know, it's all I knew. It's all I knew, going back and forth between two homes. And my father and I had a really good relationship. He was a great dad.

He was loving and kind. And when I got to see him,

he owned a restaurant, so I'd go hang out with him while he was cooking, and I'd act like a waitress and.

And take orders from the customers. And then when I was with my mom, it was just my mom and I.

My father remarried to a woman that was. Her family was from Lebanon, and they had other children. So now I got to be the older sister of two little siblings.

And so for seven years,

we went back and forth like that.

One weekend going to the mosque with my father and his family, and then another weekend going to church with my mom. And that's all. I knew the word God.

I thought it was the same God, you know, those young years,

I don't know, I just think that they do it a different way versus my mom. Right.

But as you alluded to,

everything drastically changed in my life when I was 7 years old in 1987. So drastic that there's a movie made about my childhood called Desperate Rescue, the Kathy Mahone Story.

NBC produced and made that movie in 1992,

because at the age of seven, my father, he Kidnapped me, and he took me to Jordan,

my mom. It was actually Halloween weekend. I don't know when this is going to air, but we are in October right now. So Halloween is the anniversary of my kidnapping.

I hated Halloween for many years.

My father asked my mom if he could take me trick or treating with my siblings. And my mom thought nothing of it. She said, absolutely, you can have Lauren for an extra day.

Just make sure you get her to school on Monday.

Typical mom, wouldn't she?

Right, Exactly.

So my dad came to pick me up that. That weekend,

and he was the only one there. It was just him. And I grabbed my suitcase. And as I've been sharing my story, like you mentioned, when God tells you to do something like start a podcast, I work full time and I call myself a soccer mom.

My kids are in sports.

I didn't have extra time on my hands to start a podcast, but I felt heavily, God was saying, Lauren, it's your turn to tell the story of what I did.

Not what NBC portrayed, but what I did.

And so when I started telling my story, I found this box. And on the outside, it says Jordan. And on the inside, it has all the photos, the magazine articles, the.

My mom's journals of when my father took me. She journaled every single day, the scripture verses. She wrote,

her tear stains on those pages as I'm reading her handwriting.

And I found a photo of myself the day my father took me. I was in a cheerleading outfit. It was my.

My little outfit for Halloween that weekend. It was blue and yellow. My hair was in pigtails. My mom let me put bright red lipstick on,

and it was a picture of me standing there with my suitcase. And my dad got me in the car, and I looked around, it was just the two of us.

And he said, I have a big surprise for you.

And I said, I know. We're going to go trick or treating.

And he said, actually, we're going to the airport.

I'm taking you on a big trip. We are going to Jordan to go see your family.

Well, I started asking all the questions, like, does my mom know? My mom never told me we were going anywhere. I didn't pack enough clothes. I'm going to miss school.

And he just kept driving.

And he began to get a little bit upset and annoyed with all my questions. And he kept saying, lauren, it's fine. She didn't want us, you know, ruin the surprise.

You'll see. Everything will be fine.

But everything was not fine.

Jan: Were your siblings there with you?

Lauren: No, it was just you and your dad. So it was just me and my dad. And my dad told me the reason my stepmother could not go is she was pregnant, which was true.

She was pregnant with her third child. But he said that it was too dangerous for her to travel.

The reality is he actually sent my stepmother and her and the kids away out of Texas to go visit her family. So that way she would not know what he was doing. She had no clue.

So that Monday,my mom was a single mom, like I said. And you know, God was already. The Holy Spirit talks to us when we don't know it.

And that day my mom decided to go have lunch with me. My mom never did that. She didn't have time to stop her day to go have lunch. But that day she did.

She drove to the school.

She went at my lunch period, and she was standing in the courtyard and waiting for all the kids to line up to go to the cafeteria. And she's scanning and she does not see me anywhere.

And the teacher catches her eye and she walks over and tells my mom, lauren never came to school today.

Well, remember, the last thing she said to my dad is, make sure Lauren gets to school. So my mom's mad.

And back then, there's no cell phones. So instead of going home, she went to the closest pay phone.

And at that pay phone, she called my dad's house. And the phone rang and rang and nobody answered.

The second phone call was to my father's restaurant. And they told my mom that Ollie never came to work that day.

Well, that anger then turned to fear.

The third phone call.

And when I share this, it's like, it's only by God that my mom did this. That third phone call, she called the Royal Alia Airlines. The headquarters is in New York City.

My mom had gone to Jordan before my parents got married to go meet his family. And she remembered that the main airlines into Amman, Jordan was the Royal Alia Airlines.

That's what it was called back then.

So she called, and when the lady answered the phone, she said, do you have a Lauren and a Ali on your flight reservations? And the woman said, ma', am, I can't give out that kind of information.

And then my mom's voice changed and she said, please, I think my ex husband has taken my daughter. Can you please help me?

So she came back on the line and she said, yes,

I have a Lauren and a Ollie arriving in Amman, Jordan this evening.

So that was the moment my mom knew that my father had taken me.

Her fourth.

Jan: Imagine how just, oh, the inside there were just that fear, horror. Oh, yeah, all of that.

Lauren: Oh,

I have two boys. One's 13 and one's 15. But when my oldest turned 7, I. I put myself in my mom's shoes. I was like, I just cannot imagine.

But that 4th phone call was my mom paged Rick Lambert with a 911 message. If you know that name, Lambert, Miranda Lambert is the country singer, songwriter. She's amazing artist.

Rick and Beverly Lambert are her parents.

They are my. They were my mom's closest friends. They were one of her only friends in the Dallas area,

and they pretty much have helped raise me my whole life.

But Rick was a police officer, and at that time, him and Beverly had a private investigation company called Lambert and Lambert.

So. And they knew my father very well.

And so she paged Rick 91 1.

Bev and Rick and I interviewed them on my. On the Redeemed podcast. And it's a lot of tears whenever we're sharing this story because we. We went through a lot together.

But Bev and Rick were actually working together at the Dallas County Courthouse when that page came through. And Rick went and got the phone from the clerk's office and called my mom back.

And standing at that pay phone, my mom begins to tell Rick,

Ollie has taken Lauren. I just confirmed that they are in Jordan. I don't know what to do.

So Bev and Rick left immediately. They drove 90, 100 miles an hour down the Dallas Expressway, and they met my mom and her townhouse in Richardson.

And that's where everything began to fall apart. They began.

Rick began calling every contact he knew in the police department, that State Department.

Beverly started trying to research all the laws, knowing that my father was a Jordanian citizen and I'm his daughter. What rights do you have as. As a US Citizen? And.

Right. News flash, you have no rights.

Jan: Oh, wow.

Lauren: So thankfully,

and. And looking back, you know, if you've been through something hard, you can look back and you can see God's footsteps, his fingerprints, and every piece of the story in the moment.

It's a hot mess and it's a storm. And you're like, God, where are you? And he's like, right here. Just hold on.

Rick told my mom,

Kathy, go to Radio Shack if anybody remembers Radio Shack,

and get a recording device and put it on your phone. So that way, anytime you try to call Jordan, you try to call Ollie's family, you happen to speak to his wife,

we need to go back and listen to any clue on where Lauren might be. And when you call The State Department, when you call all these government agencies, we need to listen again and see what they're telling you to do.

Because Rick told her that I have hours of cassette tapes.

When I began writing my book, I pulled those cassette. Cassette tapes out. I prayed, y'. All. I prayed because I'm in Texas. I'm dumb.

I put those cassette tapes in a hot garage in Texas.

I was 25 when my mom gave me this stuff.

And I was like, please, God, let them work.

Every cassette tape worked. And I've listened to hours of these conversations and having to hear my father's voice and my mom begging. She's begging. She's calling Jordan day after day,

Please let me talk to Lauren. I'm her mother. This isn't fair. Please let me talk to Ali. And in Arabic. They're only speaking Arabic, and she cannot understand what they're saying.

And they just keep saying, Lauren’s not here. Ali's not here.

I'm sorry. And then they would speak Arabic day after day after day.

And then the State Department said, I'm sorry, we can't help you. The police said, I'm sorry, we can't help you. It's. There's nothing we can do.

Everyone kept saying, I'm sorry, you're never going to see your daughter again.

And my mom was not eating.

She was not sleeping.

Beverly and Rick and Miranda was four years old. I'm. I'm older than her.

They moved out of their house and moved in with my mom,

and they were with her day and night,

trying to help figure out a way to get me back.

Jan: Thank goodness.

Lauren: Yes. And, you know, I talk about community like,

We need people that are going to point us back to Jesus when all we can see is the hot mess in front of our eyes.

And like I said, Beverly was living with my mom, but on a certain day, she actually called my mom. And I have this on a cassette tape recording.

And Beverly called my mom, and my mom is in. Is crying. And she said, Beverly, will you please pray over Lauren? No matter where she is, if she's in a mosque, if she's in the streets of Jordan, pray protection over her.

And Beverly starts praying a powerful prayer over me.

And then she stopped and she said, Kathy,

you have got to get away from all of the noise and the chaos and the fear,

and you have got to be alone with Jesus.

And my mom just started crying on the phone and could barely speak. And she said,

you're right, and I've got to get rid of these cigarettes.

My mom had smoked cigarettes for years, but she told me at this point, she was like, she was smoking two cigarettes at a time.

Just the stress nonstop. And when I share this, I'm not saying you're going to go to hell if you're smoking cigarettes, but she was running to that instead of running to Jesus.

And then Beverly said, you need to fast. And Beverly began to tell my mom that she had read a book, how fasting brings you the closest to God.

And my mom said, you're right. I've got to get away. I've got to fast and pray.

And so it was a Friday.

Rick had pulled some strings and got my mom an appointment at the grand jury in Dallas to go meet, to try to get a warrant out for my dad's arrest.

Thinking if my dad tried to come back to the United States, because, remember, his wife and kids were still here,

that maybe they could arrest him and then try to figure out where I was.

But he warned my mom, that's probably all that they're going to be able to do. They're not going to be able to do much for you.

So they went to the courthouse,

and my mom stood before that jury, and she tells the grand jury that my father had taken me.

And they tell her, I'm so sorry, ma', am, but we don't have a treaty. The United States does not have a treaty with Jordan, therefore we can't get involved.

It's international law. They can't go over and get me. They have no rights there.

And then my mom's body language and her voice changed, and she said,

this is not fair. We spend billions of dollars in foreign aid year after year, and you're telling me you can do nothing to help me?

And she said, every person on that panel shook their head and agreed with her.

And one man stood up and opened his wallet and said, my name is Al Zaponta, and Al Zaponta is still working to this day in the political world.

And my mom had no clue who this man was.

And he hands her his business card, and he said, I work for the State Department. If you're not happy with the State Department, give me a call and I'll see what I can do.

Well, she put the card in her. In her wallet. And you know when you're just so overwhelmed with all the negative and all the bad things, you can't even see the light in the darkness.

So my mom walked out of that jury room, and Rick could tell that she was defeated. And they get in the car. They drive back to the townhouse, and Beverly opens the door, and Bev's like, well, what'd they say?

And my mom said, they can't do anything for me. They will do a warrant, but that's it.

So my mom went and got her Bible and she got her bag, and she told Bev and Rick, she said, I'm leaving.

I don't know where I'm going.

And they stayed at the townhouse to make sure that if anyone called from Jordan, they could answer the phones and sort of screen things while my mom was gone.

And she drove to Fort Worth, about an hour away from where she was, or a little bit less.

And she found a motel room, and she stayed there for three days,

fasting and praying, only drinking water on her hands and knees in that motel,

that floor room.

And on the third day,

God gave my mom the scripture verse of Daniel.

And if. And I'm going to give you a little bit of background.

Daniel had been fasting for the Israelites for 21 days in Daniel 10:12. I'm going to read it so I don't mess it up.

The angel Gabriel came to Daniel, and the angel said,

do not be afraid, Daniel.

Since the first day you set your mind to gain understanding and humble yourself before God, your words were heard.

I want you to hear what I just said.

The first day,

the moment my mom walked into that motel room, she humbled herself, right? She took her eyes off of the crazy. And I don't know if I could do that, y'.

All.

I mean,

my daughter is gone across the United States,

internationally,

and I'm going to stop and go and pray. But that's what she did. She was obedient and humble,

but that's.

Jan: Because at that point, she knew that getting close to God was the only way she could even survive herself to be able to deal with the fact that her daughter was gone and she had no idea what was happening there.

And that's right.

Lauren: The State Department says no.

The police say no.

Everyone says no. Every door shut, God.

That's right. Absolutely. And if. If you continue to read it, talks about it took me 21 days. You know, Gabriel says, because there is a spiritual battle, there's warfare going on in the heavenlies.

There's warfare going on in the heavenlies over your marriage,

over your children, over your career,

over your life. Whatever situation you are going through right now, not a kidnapped child, but whatever it is,

you put yourself in that same scripture.

So keep praying and fighting and petitioning. The Bible says to Petition and to fast and to humble yourself and to surrender.

My mom walked out of there,

and God told her a couple things before she left that motel room. One was, Kathy,

lay down any areas of bitterness and anger and unforgiveness and lay down your cigarettes.

My mom had to lay all of that down. And she said, I'll do whatever it takes, God.

And I always say it's like she was wrestling with God in that motel room.

When she left, she went back to the townhouse, and Beverly opened the door and she looked at my mom and said,

you don't look the same,

because that's what happens when you're in the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Yeah, she had a peace about her. She had a joy about her. She went and, like, got her oil changed and paid some bills and did, like, normal people stuff.

And my mom said, I'm not the same.

God told me, I'm going to get my daughter back, and I know that I'm going to.

She pulled out that business card and called Al that Monday.

Al told my mom one week before he was in that jury room when she spoke,

he was in Washington, D.C.

having lunch with his friend, Everett Alvarez.

Everett Alvarez is very well known in the military world. He's the second longest held pow. He was held for eight and a half years.

And Everett was telling Al during this lunch meeting that he had met a group of men in North Carolina. They were ex-military, Green Beret, Delta Force, Army Rangers.

They had just started a company called CTU where their mission was to go into the Middle east to rescue hostages adults. They had never rescued a child.

Jan: It is like, just the way.

It's like God's writing your story, you know, Meanwhile,

you're doing your thing, and whatever's going on there,

you have no idea. I mean, and I'm sure you're thinking about your mom every single day, but still,

God is just putting every nitpick and little piece together.

Lauren: Yes.

Yes. You can't tell me there's not a God. And in the movie, you're not going to hear any of these details. You're not going to see the God moments. That's why I'm writing a book.

That's why I started the podcast. It's almost like I heard God say, how dare you not share what I did in your life? And I'm like, okay, yes, sir. You know.

Right.

Because it's powerful. It's powerful when you see what God does.

Yeah. So my mom immediately said, I want to meet these men.

And Al told my Mom. Kathy, they have never rescued a child. They don't work for the United States.

The United States will not help them.

And it's going to cost a lot of money. You're going to risk your life, they're going to risk their lives,

and they cannot guarantee your safety. And my mom said, I don't care.

So she flew them to Dallas.

And when I started this podcast,

I have actually interviewed the men that rescued me.

Jan: Oh, did you?

Lauren: I actually did a reunion last September. We went to North Carolina, and we did a reunion with the men that rescued me and Bevin. Rick went with me and my mom.

So that's what God does when you say yes to doing crazy things like a podcast.

Jan: Absolutely.

Lauren: Let's.

Jan: So he hires them, she gets them over to,

you know, flies them in, and they're all ready to go.

Because they believe. They had to believe in what,

you know,

the goal of getting you back.

Lauren: Yes. So when I interview Dave Chatelier is the oldest of the group, they call him Grandpa. And when he.

When he talks about my mom,

it's pretty special because he's like, Lauren,

she would have done anything to get you, obviously.

And we just knew that this woman was determined, and it was the right thing to do to go rescue this American little girl and to bring her home. And how could we not help this single woman?

So Dave and Don, after meeting with my mom, they said yes.

And so my mom had to gather up the money, and it was $80,000 back in 1987 for a single mom. And they said that didn't even cover the cost. They just did what they needed to do and.

And didn't worry about the money.

And Dave was the first one to go into country, as he calls it, into Jordan. His mission was to locate my father's home,

get eyes on me, to make sure I was actually in Jordan,

and find an escape route out of there, because they can't just put me on a plane and fly me out.

And Don and J.D.

they stayed back. And then my mom went to Washington, D.C. with Al to try to get passports for me, because, remember, my father had my passport,

and it was an active passport.

And so that whole story of the details, she was in Washington, D.C. for over a week. She thought that she'd only be there for a few days. She literally had to call Beverly and say, please send me more clothes.

And she was trying to stay in little cheap hotels and eat McDonald's, because every dime spent. Right.

And so while all of that's going on, I'm in Jordan with my father and everyone's speaking Arabic. My father could speak English, but not no one else.

And I didn't know how to speak Arabic. And I begged to talk to my mom. When can I see my mom? When can I see my stepmom? When can I see my siblings?

At least if my stepmom was there, I would feel safe, safe to have her with me.

But she wasn't coming.

And the parts I did not know is she told my father, I will not go to Jordan because I am not Lauren's mother. I will not go to Jordan until you come home with her.

And he refused.

And I was going to school. When I started going to school, I knew I was no longer on vacation. I was the oldest kid in my class.

I stuck out like a sore thumb. I was learning how to speak and write Arabic.

I Our bathrooms were a little hole in the ground where you would squat over the hole, and you have a chain and you pull the chain above and you would clean yourself with your hand.

So that was huge culture shock for a seven-year-old little girl. I refused to go to the bathroom to the point where I would have an accident. I would rather just have an accident than to use the restroom.

It was culture shock in a big way.

And I was being called to prayer and learning how to pray on a prayer, prayer rug and all the customs. And my father was very different there.

What I did not understand at that age is the men had certain things that they were supposed to do, responsibilities, and it was not to take care of a child.

And so this loving father that would tuck me in at night and get me ready for bed and spent all this time with me and the kitchen cooking now was not around.

And so now it was my grandmother and my aunts. And they were very loving, but I did not know them.

So there was definitely huge differences that I could not quite put into words at 7 years old.

And I was scared. I was afraid would I ever see my mom again.

And when my father finally let me talk to my mom on the phone, he was very guarded. He said,

make sure your mom knows you're okay and that you're safe and you're happy here.

Don't ask her certain questions, don't ask her when she's going to come to visit.

And he did the same with her. Don't ask Lauren where she is, don't ask her certain questions. Don't badmouth me or my family.

And he was listening the whole time and made sure I knew he was listening.

So it was Very guarded conversation.

And I only got to talk to her once or twice while. While I was gone. But like you said,

I had no clue what my mom was doing on the other side of the world.

So Dave had been in country for about two or three weeks by himself, and he called Don and JD and said, I cannot find Lauren and I cannot find the house because all the photos my mom had given them were very old and dated.

The city looked different.

So Don and JD Flew in. And they're all in disguise. They're changing cars every day, making sure no one notices who they are and. And that they're trying to blend in.

And they are. They are combing the streets. They are looking through the schoolyards. They're in the ruins. They're in the marketplaces.

And after several days,

Don and J.D. are out on the street. And J.D. starts praying. He's praying, God, you've brought us all the way here.

Help us find this little girl.

And if you're not watching this on YouTube and you're just listening,

I have olive complexion skin, I have dark hair, but I have bright bluish green eyes. I have my mom's eyes.

So that's that sort of standout feature that they were looking for.

A school bus pulled up right where JD was standing on the street in Jerush.

And I turned and I look at him through the window of that bus,

and he's staring right at me.

And he swells up with excitement. He runs over to Don, and he shakes them by the shoulders. He's like, I saw Lauren. I saw Lauren and Don,

like, where? And the bus is driving off, and he's like, she's on that bus.

And Don was like, how do you know? How are you sure? And JD is like, because I saw her eyes. I know it's her.

So again, it wasn't even.

Jan: Even with that, even with that detail before you were born, God knew that that was going to come into play.

Lauren: You know,

I get emotional,

right,

when people compliment me on my eyes. It's real sweet to get a compliment, but there's a lot more to those eyes. So every time someone compliments me, I think of that.

You knit me in my mother's womb, right?

You designed me and created me.

And just like for the person listening,

sometimes we go through hard things and we're like, why, God? Why do I have this disability? Why do I have a learning disability? Why do I have this disease?

Why was I born into this family?

He created you for a purpose.

So don't give up on the goodness of God, no matter what you might be going through.

After they knew it was me and they knew I was going to school.

They tried to follow the bus, but they couldn't because the streets were so crowded.

But they knew I was in school, so they started watching the buses to figure out where I was, but they still could not find the house.

So they called my mom. My mom was in Cyprus waiting.

And they said, Kathy, you're gonna have to come and help us find Ali's home. We. We found Lauren, but we. We haven't found the house.

My mom was. She's a very confident woman, and so she thought, oh, yeah, I got this. I. I'm gonna find her.

And so excited that this is the closest that she's been to me all this time.

So she dresses in disguise. They cover her hair. She flies into Amman, and she's sitting in the front seat while Don is driving through the streets towards Jerush. And as they begin to go into the small town, fear overwhelms my mom. The streets were different.

Instead of dirt roads, they're now paved roads. Instead of little buildings, they built on top of each other. And so they're big buildings. Nothing looked familiar.

My mom literally got down in the floorboard of the front seat while Don was driving, and she began to pray out loud with her eyes closed. And she said, God, you have not brought me and these men this far to not even find the home.

You have to help me find the house.

With her eyes closed, she began to give Don directions. And Don just followed.

And she. She said, it's like the Holy Spirit began to remind her where she had walked all those years before. And so she started saying, go. Go straight. Turn left, turn right.

And eventually, she looked out the window and she saw my father's white Mazda sitting on the street corner with Texas license plates because he had his car shipped over.

But she froze at that moment. And when she could finally get the words out, she finally said, I saw Ali's car on the street.

Don turned the car around and told my mom to hide her face. And when he drove past,

he saw my dad step out of the door onto the street.

So that was the first time that they finally set eyes on my dad and the house where I was.

But again,

not until people started praying.

Jan: Just miraculous. Absolutely miraculous. There's no way you should have been found at all.

Lauren: No, no. And, you know, and getting to talk to Dave and JD and Don, they said, Lauren, if this had happened. And nowadays, when everyone's got a cell Phone. We couldn't have pulled this off.

There's just so many details that they talked about over their life of thinking about this rescue.

So they knew where I was, they knew where the house was. They knew I was going to school.

The mission that they came up with was to hijack the school bus.

They started watching the bus, and there was one little spot on the outskirts of town,

because where the house was right by a police station, and it was in a crowded part of the city.

But that little farmhouse where the school bus stopped would be much safer, away from all of the public.

And the goal was we were going to go across the Allenby Bridge. It's a secure border between Jordan and Israel. That was the escape route that Dave had found.

And they had spent numerous days going back and forth over that checkpoint, so that way the soldiers would know who they were.

They knew the area. They knew the lay of the land.

There was barbed wire fences. There was soldiers with machine guns.

There was the big artillery towers with the soldiers on the. On top that were,

you know, protecting that border between Jordan and Israel. It's called the King Hussein Bridge. Now, I believe you had to have your passport that my mom got in Washington. You had to have a visa and a border pass.

Those are all the things that my mom had to go and get for us to be able to cross that border.

On the day of the mission, there were two cars.

And the day of the mission, there was a code word.

Judy Feeney, Don's wife, she was back in North Carolina sort of running things stateside.

She came up with a code word for the day of the mission. And she said, tell Kathy the code word is the sun is shining,

but the sun,

it's S o n. It's not S u n.

My mom had never met Judy until we did the reunion recently.

She didn't know her faith. She didn't know that. That she was praying over this whole mission. And her husband,

but God, he picked out the people to do this rescue.

So, the day of the mission, there were two cars. One Dave Chatelier. His job was to watch the house, to make sure. I actually got on the school bus the day of the hijacking.

Right?

Jan: Right.

Lauren: And then the other car was my mom and Don and JD so after I got on the bus,

Dave drove over to where my mom and the men were and said, the mission is a go. The sun is shining. As soon as the school bus passed, Don,

he drove behind and he. He buck. He parked so that the bus could not move.

Don Got out and went over to the driver's side window to distract the driver. He's speaking in English to get his attention.

JD Goes over to the passenger accordion style doors, and he pries open those doors.

My mom goes over, and she spots me in the window.

She went over and her hair's all covered and she's tapping on the window and she's motioning to me to come.

I froze.

I froze. I went into shock.

All I could think of is, it looks just like my mom. But how can it be her? She has to be in Texas. And I thought I was in a dream so I wouldn't move.

So my mom pushed past J.D. Got the keys out of the ignition and threw them into some bushes so that way they would go looking for the keys instead of going straight to the police.

And my mom got onto the bus,

pushing past all the kids, and she scooped me up and she got my backpack and. And as we're getting off the bus, there's a lady chaperone. The lady chaperone jumps on my mom's back.

She has to let go of my hand, put me down so she can turn around, and she punches the woman in the nose.

This woman is bleeding. So now I'm really thinking, this is not my mom.

Jan: My mom would not do that.

Lauren: I'm not supposed to hit people, right?

And then the men see what's going on, so they came over, they help my mom, they get me into the floorboard of the car, and they cover me and jump in the car, and we drive off.

And a couple blocks down the road; we switch cars with Dave.

So, Dave took the car that we had just used to hijack the bus.

And he was our decoy. He drove back towards the city,

hoping that they would follow him and not us.

And so as.

As Dave did that, we start to drive towards Israel, which was a 45-minute drive from where we were to the border.

We did not know this at the time, but. And Dave details this on the Redeemed podcast in my interview,

they pulled him over.

He was surrounded, blocking traffic, surrounded by Jordanian police. They pull him out of the car,

they.

They tear apart the car. The only thing he had with him was a little Pepsi can with Arabic writing and a Snickers bar and a. And a jar of sand.

When we did that reunion last September, he still had.

He had it and he brought it to me, and he said, I don't know why I've held onto this all these years,

but would you like to have this? Of course I'm crying.

I can't believe I'm even hugging you right now. But, yes, I want that old Pepsi can.

And they could not find anything about me or my mom. There was no evidence. So they bring the school bus driver to the scene. And the school bus driver in Arabic is saying,

that is the car. But I don't know who the man is, because, remember, Dave was not there at the hijacking.

Yeah. So this is going on for, like, 30 minutes. And finally, over the radios, he hears Alia Airport. Alia Airport.

My mom had made fake reservations for us to fly out of the air,

out of Amman, to go back to the United States on that day.

And they had just found those reservations.

They were shutting down the whole entire airport looking for us.

So those men all jumped in their cars and they left Dave on the side of the road and they went to the airport. And that's how Dave was able to escape.

There's more to that story, but that's the main part.

So while that's going on, we are driving to Israel. And the fog was so thick that day,

they could not drive very fast. They could only see the front of the car because it was sort of in a valley area.

And as they're driving, my mom is holding me and she's praying. I'm burning up with a fever. I'm not speaking at all because, again, I had gone into shock. And when I did speak, I was only speaking Arabic.

And my mom looks out the window, and she said, what is that bright light? What is that in the distance? And Don said, well, Kathy,

that's the sun. The sun is shining over Israel.

And again, it's like God is like, Kathy, I am with you. I'm going to see you through this. I'm not going to fail you.

Oh, wow. And so we get to that border,

and back then, you had to leave your car on one side, you get on a bus, and the bus drives you over across into Israel. So we had to get out, take the paperwork, and turn it into the officials we loaded onto the bus.

My mom's trying to stay as calm as possible.

And we sat there forever sitting on that bus, waiting for the bus driver to get on the bus. And the whole time, JD and Don are. There's, you know, surveying everywhere.

Their eyes, they're on alert. What happens if they realize who we are?

And finally the bus driver gets on the bus and cranks up that bus and we start driving. And in the middle of the bridge, there's a shack where an Israeli Soldier and an Israeli bus driver.

They're waiting,

and so they switch. The Jordanian bus driver gets off, the Israeli bus driver gets on, and they take you on over into Israel right after that happens. And you can see the Israeli flag flying in the distance.

Right as we cross over into Israel, there's a huge commotion behind us.

They had just realized where we had left, that we were on the bus,

but there's nothing they could do. We had already crossed over,

and we were home free.

So we got off that bus.

My mom begins to cry, and she's hugging me and kissing me, and I'm crying.

And there's a group of women there, and they come over to JD. JD is a big, handsome military guy. And they said, is that woman okay? What's going on with the little girl? Is everything okay?

And JD Looks at them, he's crying,

and he said, you see that mama and that little girl?

That little girl was taken three months ago, and we just rescued her, bringing her home to safety.

And those women come over and they're like, hallelujah, we've come to the Holy Land, and we have seen a miracle. And they prayed over us and hugged us.

And it's like, that's just how good God is. He had a celebration waiting for us on the other side of the bridge.

Jan: Just like heaven's gonna be.

Lauren: Exactly. Like heaven's gonna be exactly.

Jan: Oh, my gosh. You know, I am not gonna. I'm not gonna ask for anything else because I want people to go back and listen to your episode and to read your book.

They can find out the more of. Oh, my gosh.

Wow, wow, wow, wow.

Definitely.

Lauren:  It's just all about.

It's all about But God. And it's like. It's faith over fear. It's, you know, no matter what you're going through. And I had a long journey of healing. That's why I.

I've written the book. I'm waiting for a publisher to pick it up, but the book will tell you about me changing my last name, living in hiding, all those father wounds, me wrestling with God.

If you're such a good God, why did you even let this happen to me? And what does a good father look like when you read the Bible?

You know, he always talks about, God is a good father. Well, I don't know what that is.

Jan: Right.

Lauren: And so it's a lot about forgiveness.

Jan: You thought you knew it was a good father.

Lauren: Yeah.

Jan: And it didn't turn out that way.

Lauren: Yeah. Right. And so. But God can heal those father wounds.

He can. That's why I call the podcast Redeemed. He can take every broken story, and he can redeem it.

Jan: Yeah,

absolutely. Absolutely.  And really, look how maybe your story would have changed if none of that ever happened to you.

Because it's in those kind of stories that show the big contrast. This is where you were. This is what the impossible was.

Lauren: Yes.

Jan: And God took this over and. And made. Made it good. He made it good.

Lauren: Yeah, that's right. People sometimes ask me, do you see the beauty in the broken? And I love that question. Yes, there is beauty and broken. Absolutely.

Jan: Yeah. Yeah. And you're right in the middle of all of that kind of stuff. How could your mom really have.

Have known that she was going to get you back or she'd ever see you again or that you'd be in one piece even?

You know, all kinds of things could have happened and it was not.

Holy moly. Tell me about a little bit about what that did for her faith afterwards.

Lauren: You know, A lot of my faith comes from watching my mom.

She tackles everything. Adversity,

always faithful, always praying. No matter what you walk through. We've got. We've had a lot of grief and loss in our family. And, you know, losing my stepfather, losing a sister, young,

even in the hard things, God is still good. And seeing my mom's faith and seeing her ability to forgive, she forgave my father. She allowed me to see my father.

She allowed my father into our home when I was in high school.

So she was an example. And I'm a parent. And so I hope one day my boys say that about me.

Mom, we saw God through you.

What more can you ask for?

Jan: Right. Right.

Lauren: And so we are that living example, right?

Jan: Yeah. And so you have any kind of relationship with your dad now or not?

Lauren: Not now. And I always say only God knows the end of that story. I don't know what will all come out of me sharing.

I believe he did what he did out of love.

I believe he did what he did out of his own beliefs. He thought he was doing the right thing.

He could never really accept what he did was wrong.

But forgiveness is not about him.

It's about me being able to say, God, he's yours. I'm letting go of anger. I'm letting go of bitterness and control.

I lay him at your feet. I am no longer angry. And I got the chance to tell him that. I got to tell my dad because I believe in Jesus, because Jesus died on the cross for my sins because Jesus calls us to forgive.

I forgave you a long time ago. I am no longer angry.

Yeah.

Jan: Yeah. And to be able to share that, and then it's. It's ultimately up to God what he does with that,

you know? I mean, it's. It. You can only do what God tells you to do.

Lauren: Right?

You can only control your actions, your emotions, and then you pray, and that's what surrender is. God, I'm letting go of these fists. Took me a long time to do that, by the way.

Sounds great right now. It didn't look pretty or middle school,

but, you know, I'm. I'm letting go of those fists. Jesus. I'm opening up my hands and I'm giving you my life. I'm giving you the hard stuff. I'm gonna trust you.

Yeah.

Jan: Yeah, Absolutely. Oh, Lauren, thank you so much. What would you like to leave with our viewers, our listeners?

Lauren: The biggest thing I want to leave is if you want. If you have dealt with some childhood wounds and some father wounds and you want to know more about your heavenly Father,

I would love to talk to you. Reach out to me on Facebook, Instagram. Lauren Burns. Lauren Burns Redeemed but know that God sees you. There's nothing too big.

You can never go too far away for him to love on you. And it's okay to tell him that you're mad. It's okay to wrestle with him because he already knows.

So you don't have to hide those feelings from him.

Jan: Yeah, yeah. So true. So true. I mean, he's there. He is right there with us.

Lauren: Right?

Jan: Okay. Thank you so much.

Lauren: You're so welcome. Thank you for the opportunity to share today.