In the News

Zack Wilson traveled to Guatemala to build a church kitchen and give Hot Wheels cars to children while spreading the word of God for his Shreveport church.

That was in March.

Now, the Keithville resident is being held in a mission house under house arrest, apparently because he mistakenly traveled to the Central American country with ammunition from his hunting rifles in his backpack.

Wilson spent the first six months of his detainment under house arrest, in prison or in hospitals battling dehydration and a serious intestinal disease.

Politicians, doctors and a social media movement — "Bring Zack Home!" — are working to get the Keithville resident back to the States.

But with a trial scheduled for February, Zack must remain in the foreign country as his wife and two young children wonder when he’ll be home.

“We know that he made this mistake,” Zack’s wife, Lisa Wilson, said. “We know he did. We hate that he did … He went there to do good and help others.”

“Prayed about it”

Zack, a parishioner at the Word of God Ministries in Shreveport, often drove missionaries to Houston, their jumping off point for Guatemala, before he decided to make the trip himself.

“We talk about it, prayed about it and decided it was a good idea,” Lisa said. “He started fundraising.”

He left Houston on March 18 with 14 other missionaries, bound for a Guatemalan village. Their mission task was to build a kitchen for feeding local families.

During their week in the country, the group also hosted a vacation bible school.

“They all brought different things from home whether it was candy or toys or whatever to give these children to love on them,” Lisa said.

Then on March 24 — a Friday — Wilson and the group fed 150 children and their mothers. The next day, the Shreveporters were to return home.

“I’m here”

Lisa waited for the call. Her husband should have landed in Houston hours before. She tried to be patient.

“I know planes can be late,” she said.

When a call came, it was from an unknown number. Lisa answered, thinking it might be her husband.

An American pastor who had accompanied the group was on the other line. The pastor explained what had happened:

The American group made it through security and customs at the airport in Guatemala City and then to their gate. Zack then went to a restroom. When he came out, he was detained.

Authorities found 16 .22-caliber and 30 .30-caliber cartridges — 16 of the former, 30 of the later — in Zack’s large backpack.

Lisa said the ammunition was from a recent pheasant hunting trip Zack had taken with his father in Kentucky. Somehow, Zack made it through customs and security in Houston with the ammo.

While in Guatemala, Zack used the backpack to carry snacks, water and gallon-sized bags of Hot Wheels cars as they traveled from their camp to the worksite. The cars were heavy so, Lisa said, he hadn't noticed the weight of the ammo.

Forty-eight hours later, Lisa finally heard Zack’s voice. He was calling from prison. They got only two minutes to talk.

“He said ‘Hey, it’s me,’” Lisa said. “He said ‘Well, I’m here,’ and I said ‘Yes, you are. What’s going on over there?’”

The seriousness of Zack’s situation had not fully dawned on them as yet.

“I just knew he was detained. He was there, and we had to wait for the next step,” Lisa said.

Increasingly sick

Since his arrest, Zack has fought the Guatemalan legal system and his own body.

The court asked for documentation identifying Zack and proving that he was married, had children and was with the church.

His first court hearing was March 27, and he's had five more — one while he was in a hospital, Lisa said.

“We fought and fought and fought to get him out of jail and into a hospital,” Lisa said. “He was falling very hard and very fast. We knew he wasn’t going to make it unless he got medical care.”

Zack suffered from ulcerative colitis — a bowel disease that causes inflammation in the digestive tract — before his trip, but the condition had been in remission. The disease can flare up. After his arrest, Zack missed his normal weekly injections until July 5, which Lisa said caused his condition to worsen.

While in jail, he wasn’t eating his required diet. He lost fluids.

“He was using the bathroom up to 20 times a day,” Lisa said. “He literally had to go to the bathroom within minutes of eating."

Zack soon grew weak and disoriented. On June 27, he was admitted to Hospital General San Juan De Dios, Lisa said, and was diagnosed with stage 2 dehydration — one step away from severe.

He then went to a private hospital on June 29. The fluids and medications administered to him in both facilities provided some relief, his wife said, but Zack still must deal with medical issues. A colonoscopy on Sept. 4 showed a 25 percent improvement in Zack’s condition.

He's been under house arrest since July 2. He lives with a group of American missionaries.

Getting medicine to Zack has been expensive. One shot in Guatemala costs $900, Lisa said. The family paid twice. Lisa then found a month’s supply of the injection for $5 in the States, but shipping and refrigerating it cost $500.

Still, the family remains hopeful about Zack's health.

“He’s getting energy back,” Lisa said. “He’s getting better (but) he’s still sick and he’s still fighting this.”

Limbo

During his most hearing about three weeks ago, information about Zack’s condition, including recommendations from his doctors in the United States and Guatemala to seek care in the U.S., was handed over to the Guatemalan judge.

Ballistics on Zack’s ammunition proved that it wasn’t military grade, Lisa said.

The judge set the case for trial in February — nearly a year after Zack and his mission partners built the kitchen.

“That’s where things stand at this moment,” Lisa said.

Lisa has been in contact with U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy and U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson, both Louisiana Republicans.

“As a doctor, I went over his medical condition with the ambassador and explained his urgent medical needs,” Cassidy said in a release. “Ambassador (Manuel Alfredo) Espina (Pinto, the Guatemalan ambassador to the U.S.) agreed to make an inquiry into the legal and medical aspects of Mr. Wilson’s case and the interplay between the two."

"We are doing everything within our power to ensure the well-being of Mr. Wilson and to bring him home while respecting the rule of law in Guatemala.”

The State Department would not make Todd Robinson, the U.S. ambassador to Guatemala, available for an interview. A department representative said it was aware of reports a U.S. citizen arrested in Guatemala.

“One of the most important tasks of the Department of State and U.S. embassies and consulates abroad is to provide assistance to U.S. citizens who are incarcerated or detained abroad,” the statement reads. “We stand ready to provide all appropriate consular services. Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment at this time.”

'I miss daddy'

Oct. 1 will be Zack and Lisa's 12th wedding anniversary. Life without Zack home is hard, she said.

The couple has two boys — Noah, 9, and Micah, 5. They've slept with Lisa every night, something that she said they weren’t doing before.

“Micah was looking at a family picture the other night and started crying and said ‘I miss daddy,’” Lisa said. “They do that frequently. They say, 'I miss daddy.'”

Zack's absence hits home when he misses special moments such as Micah riding his bike without training wheels just in the past week, Lisa said.

“They get upset at those moments,” Lisa said. “The nights are the hardest because daddy always laid down and did prayers with them or read a book to them.”

Since his house arrest, Lisa has talked with Zack daily about the kids' progress at school and the mundane things that husbands and wives usually talk about. She sends videos and pictures, and she FaceTimes with Zack at the mission house.

Lisa has traveled to Guatemala three times to see Zack. Their children accompanied her on the most recent trip a few weeks ago.

She worries that Zack’s health will fail and that he won’t make it to trial.

“That’s my fear,” she said.

She has hopes, too. She hopes God's grace softens someone’s heart.

He will deliver him

The community at large has supported the Wilsons in Zack’s absence.

He was the family’s primary breadwinner. The Word of God Ministries, where Zack works maintenance and events, paid his wages during the first three months he was detained. His co-workers offered up vacation days to pay an additional three months. But now the paychecks have stopped.

Strangers, too, have reached out. A GoFundMe account to support the family and pay Zack’s living expenses in Guatemala has raised almost $19,400.

The circumstances and hardships have tested Lisa’s faith.

“It’s made me question my faith. I don’t think I’d be human if it didn’t,” she said. “In the end, I know in my heart that He is in control.”

Around the house, Lisa has taped excerpts from Psalm 91 on walls. The final lines read:

“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;

"I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

"He will call on me, and I will answer him;

"I will be with him in trouble,

"I will deliver him and honor him.

"With long life I will satisfy him

 and show him my salvation.”