They Meant to Kill Me is a riveting memoir of missionary Paul Lehmann’s six-decade walk with God—from an Ohio childhood to twenty-one years in the former Zaire (now the DRC). Called as a young man and trained at Nyack and Alliance Theological Seminary, Paul chronicles seven brush-with-death moments and the grace that met him every time: a tractor rollover as a teen, a midnight slide toward a creek bed, a near collision with a speeding train, a deadly riptide rescue on the Atlantic coast, a split-second road accident amid Kinshasa’s crowds, and a 1990 riot where a thrown stone shattered his windshield and struck his forehead—yet did not take his life. Woven through these scenes are the everyday labors of mission: learning French in France, directing a new high school in Boma, distributing Scripture and Christian literature, planting urban churches in Kinshasa, and discipling students who would become pastors. With clear biblical reflection, Paul explores the apostle’s “thorn in the flesh” as relentless opposition rather than illness and testifies that God’s presence is nearest in the hardest places. Part thriller, part testimony, this faith-building book affirms a simple truth: when God calls, He also preserves—until the mission He gives is complete.