African refugee John Gonleh (JG) and his family were living in Liberia when civil war broke out near their hometown of Monrovia. This began a journey of tragedy and triumph for nearly 20 years that would put their faith to the test. Today John is here to share with us his incredible true life story as captured in his book, "Refuge: A True Story of Faith and Civil War." Sheila Schuller Coleman (SSC) interviews John.

SSC: We have had many wonderful guests here at the Crystal Cathedral and today is no exception. This is the story of a family. Imagine that you are raised in a village in Africa with a mud hut, no running water, no bathroom and then later you end up in the capital city of Monrovia in Liberia, where you get to go to school, you have a career and you have a home with rooms and bathrooms. You own your own company, your wife works in a bank, you have children and it feels like you're on top of the world when suddenly, a few days after Christmas, a truck comes pulling up into your driveway and barging into your front door are teen rebels with machine guns. They take you (your wife and children somehow escape) and you're held in prison where you're tortured.

And then one day a truck comes and loads you on with others and drives you to a field where everyone is ushered off. There is gun fire and suddenly everything is still. I want to read this to you because this is what he experienced:

"The shooting stopped. It suddenly occurred to me that I was alive. I tried to move and squirm but it was difficult. What was holding me down? I couldn't see anything. Something was in my eyes, something wet."

That man, who was in this horrific situation was buried under nearly a hundred bodies and was the only one to live. His name is John Gonleh. Please welcome with me, John.

So there you are. The shooting stops and you realize that these are bodies that are on top of you. You are the only one out of about a hundred to survive this massacre. And then you don't know if your wife is alive and she doesn't know if you're alive. But through the miracle of God, you discover that you're both alive. Tell everyone what God did in your life.

JG: First I want to say thank you to this great church and to all of you good people, and thank you to Dr. Schuller, our dear pastor and father, as I may call him. It's an honor to be here today to tell you what God has done for me. And if He did it for me, I want to encourage you that He can also do likewise for you.

SSC: Amen.

JG: I was captured by the rebels and taken to a prison. I was there for one week under hard torturing and intimidations, but I didn't forget to pray. I kept praying and even encouraging the rest of the prisoners to pray. And sometimes they would get tired and angry with me saying 'why are we praying? God isn't doing anything.' I said 'the Lord is working but you will never see the working of the Lord until it approaches its time.'

So when they took us and put us on a truck, they said they were taking off on a last investigation. But we didn't know that we were really being ambushed. When we got there, they asked us to stand in a circle. Then since I'm always praying, 40 people asked me, 'you God man, come and pray for the people.'

So I moved in the center of the circle and raised my hands, and said 'let's pray.' It was then that the heavy firing began. I opened my eyes and saw that we were surrounded by armed men so I dropped to the ground and as the shooting continued, bodies just starting falling on me. I gave up on life completely and didn't know I was alive or dead.

Once the shooting subsided I felt God place life back into me. I tried to push the bodies off of me, but it was very, very tough. Because God's grace was with me, He empowered me to remove the bodies.

When I finally stood up, I was hungry so I decided to run out in the bush to go look for food. Then I decided to go to my house but when I got there, I saw only the frame of my home. My home had been burned. It was then that I thought my wife and family had died. So I ran back into the bush.

Then I saw a woman coming into an old farm to look for food. When she saw my appearance, she started running away from me. I said 'don't run, I'm not a rebel. I have come to look for food.' She recognized my voice and said 'what are you doing here?' and I told her I was almost killed, but God saved my life. I told her that I believed my wife and children were killed, too. To my amazement, she told me they were alive and at the village where she was coming from. I turned to her and said what? She had to repeat it three times.

Then she gave me something to wear over my bloody clothes and she took me into the village. My wife didn't recognize me at first, but when she realized it was me and I saw her we started running to each other and embraced each other in tears.

All in all, I want to encourage you, Christian friends that you should learn to take refuge in God. Refuge is a place of safety, it's a place of protection, it's a place of divine opportunity in the presence of the almighty God. Today that's how my life has been spared.

SSC: And then you and Bessie ended up with the children in a refugee camp, and you were there for how long?

JG: We were in a refugee camp in Africa for 15 years.

SSC: Fifteen years.

JG: Fifteen years.

SSC: That's a long time to be in a refugee camp. And eventually through the mercies and the miracles of God, you and Bessie were able to come to America, but you had to leave your children behind, is that true?

JG: Yes it is.

SSC: But eventually your children were able to reunite with you here in America.

JG: Again, the Lord worked a miracle. After we were approved by the immigration of America to travel, my daughter Monica filed for my wife and myself, but the children were not on the affidavit, so immigration told us we could come to America but we had to leave the children. Once we arrived in America, then we'd be able to file for them. So when we got here in 2005, I immediately started filing for John and Johnette. And today, we have John in our midst.

SSC: John Jr., stand up.

JG: Yes, you see him right there.

SSC: You came to America and God reunited you with your family. What a wonderful story. And now you are a Baptist minister here in America, so God is using you. You are a wonderful testimony because there are people today who think that there's no hope, there's no way. They've got these barriers that they believe there's no way around and their backs are up against the wall. Yet your story says don't give up. God is there. God is a refuge. God will break those barriers. God will see you through.

John's book is called Refuge. Refuge because God is a refuge. It's a true story of faith and civil war. I was blessed to read it so thank you John for being a testimony to us this morning.

JG: Thank you.

SSC: God bless you.

© Copyright Hour of Power 2009. This interview was conducted by Robert H. Schuller from the pulpit of the Crystal Cathedral and aired on the Hour of Power October 18, 2009.