Arizona street preacher Hans Schmidt is continuing to recover after being shot last November. “It’s a miracle, absolutely a miracle,” he said. “I should not be alive. Realistically, I should be dead. And because of his grace and his love, I’m still here.”
Hans Schmidt, a street preacher, in the hospital with his family after he was shot in the head. (Zulya Schmidt/Facebook)
Schmidt, a 26-year-old father of two, military combat veteran and outreach director at Victory Chapel First Phoenix, was taken to the hospital on suspicion of having been assaulted. A CT scan revealed he had been shot in the head. Schmidt’s condition quickly deteriorated as his family prayed for a miracle and implored others to do the same.
Schmidt’s wife, Zulya, told CBN News late last year about the events surrounding the shocking ordeal, noting that the shooting unfolded while Hans was street preaching, as he frequently has done. “He’s been doing that for over a year and, usually, he street preaches for 30 minutes before every evening service for our church,” she said. “That day, he just ended street preaching early, and I thought that was odd.”
Based on the dire state of affairs, authorities and medical professionals alike assumed he would die. Through prayer and medical intervention, though, Schmidt beat the odds and went home just months later in January and has continued his road to recovery. Bullet fragments are still inside his brain, because it was too risky to remove all of the pieces.
As for the individual who shot Schmidt, police are still looking for suspects. But that hasn’t stopped the evangelist from doing two things — returning to the corner to preach and forgiving.
“I don’t think that holding a grudge against him is going to change anything,” he said. “I think it’s important to forgive people. And I forgive him.”
A GoFundMe account has been set up to help the Schmidt family deal with the massive expenses they’ve incurred.
–Dwight Widaman | Metro Voice