ORLANDO — Sixteen-year-old Althea Mills did something many people have a hard time doing under the best of circumstances. She readily shared her faith and what it means to be forgiven with a man who held her and members of her family hostage at gunpoint for 51 hours at her home.

Althea, a member of Orlando’s Taft/Livingston Memorial United Methodist Church, and six other family members were taken hostage Saturday, July 22, by Jamie Dean Petron.

Petron, 41, fled to Orlando after reportedly killing one man and seriously injuring another in a robbery at a convenience store in Pompano Beach. He eluded police in a residential area and entered the home of Thelma Mills, Althea’s mother and a long-time member of the Taft church. Petron reportedly shot a deputy sheriff in the leg during the chase.

Althea said she hid behind a shower curtain when Petron entered the house and was not spotted until sometime later. Her mother and brother, Norman, who was shot by Petron, escaped early in the ordeal. Hostages Nicholas Hall, 8, and his 11-month-old sister, Nicolette, were released Sunday afternoon. Althea and 9-month-old Daniquea Akoon remained in the house until Monday afternoon, when Petron killed himself.

Andrea Hall, 40, Althea’s aunt and mother of Nicholas and Nicolette, was killed during the incident. She was mistakenly shot Sunday by an Orlando Police Department SWAT member while retrieving the juice and doughnuts police sent on a robot to the doorway of the home, according to reports published in The Orlando Sentinel.

Althea said Petron began asking her questions about prayer, repentance and forgiveness before her aunt was shot.

Petron overheard Althea talking with her cousin about the prayer she was supposed to have shared at church that Sunday morning. Althea decided her topic would have been repentance and blurted out, "It’s never too late to repent."

Petron asked her what repent meant. She said that question began a conversation that continued off and on throughout the ordeal, but which intensified after Hall died.

"I told him we are born into sin and that all sin is the same. We all fall short," she said. "Regardless of what you’ve done, your sins can be forgiven."

When Petron asked her how to repent, she told him to pray.

"I would think he would forget about it," she said, "but then he would ask a question about it. It wasn’t a consistent conversation."

Althea said Petron felt guilty after Hall was shot and promised to let her go, but that he was going to kill himself. She urged him not to commit suicide. "God is the beginning, is the end of everything," she told him. "Never take it upon yourself to end it."

Althea said she felt Petron did not think he was worth much and that he "already had it planned in his head that he was going to kill himself. He didn’t want to live."

She said Petron was "crying hysterically" and trying to pray toward the end, but couldn’t concentrate because of the persistence and noise from police, who had been blasting the house with horns and sirens for days to keep Petron from sleeping.

By Monday afternoon, Petron had had enough and asked police to give him time to kill himself, according to The Orlando Sentinel reports. He fired one shot into his chest.

Earlier, Petron had asked Althea what she would say to police when it was all over. She told him she would quote II Timothy 1:7, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

"Yes, I was scared; yes, I was scared for my life, but I have plenty of faith," she said. "…God didn’t give me a spirit of fear."

Funeral services for Hall were held July 29 and led by Michael Wacht, the 41-member church’s part-time supply pastor and assistant editor of the "Florida United Methodist Review." Wacht was with family members and friends at the police command center, counseling and praying with them throughout much of the ordeal.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating Hall’s death, and attorney Johnnie Cochran has been hired to represent the family in a wrongful death case against the police.

Althea has just started a new year at Cypress Creek High School, where Wacht says she has been a good student. In addition to running cross country, she plays the violin and sings at church.