Thieves stole from us but God provides

By Anthony:

Most of you know already that when we were in Kampala some weeks ago we had things stolen from us.  I wanted to briefly reflect on the experience, but first I'll give a brief summary of the events.

We were in Kampala for meetings and staying at a guesthouse nearby.  We left our computers and things in our room, locked it, and went down the stairs to eat dinner.  We ate with our World Renew colleagues for 30 minutes then returned to our room to find our things rifled through and missing 2 computers, our camera, 2 internet modems, and all of our cash.  I immediately ran down the stairs in a panic telling the receptionist and guard to quickly lock the place down to see if they could find the thieves.  We told our World Renew supervisors to check if they were missing anything, and then they helped us figure out what to do.  We are really glad that they were there to help us and talk it through with us.  But we couldn't do much other than to wait for the guards to pull up the security footage from the hidden cameras.

We are thankful that our regional team leader was around.  He remembered seeing people standing in the hallway and then ducking into their hotel room as he passed to go down to dinner.  The receptionist reported that those guests had paid for their room for another evening and then left to go to dinner elsewhere (with a backpack on).  Our leader was finally able to convince the hotel staff to not only just sit and wait for the footage, but to go inspect at least that one room while those guests were out.  The staff did so and we were very overjoyed to find my computer in that hotel room, along with Sara's computer case with one modem inside its pocket. 

In the hour or so between the discovery of the robbery and the discovery of my computer, many things went through my mind.  I'm very aware that if anything is an idol in my life, it is my computer.  I use it for most of my daily work, my communication, watching movies, playing games, listening to music, etc. etc.  My biggest fear always is that it will get broken or stolen.   When it happened, I was praying fervently that God would let it get returned.  But I was also working through my idolatry, thinking it was possible that God was using this to make me less attached to my computer.  Before it was discovered, I had accepted the reality that I wasn't getting it back, continued to proclaim my trust in God, and reminded myself that it's only a computer and not the end of the world.  But I sure had a lot of stress imagining how I would get a new computer to Uganda, and how I would download my massive programs and updates, without spending hundreds of dollars in internet airtime.  You cannot believe how much relief I had when my computer was found.

For those of you that don't know, my computer is very big and people regularly tease me about how cumbersome it is to move around.  It's so big that I needed to order a special unique backpack for it.  But its bigness is what saved it.  The thieves carried everything out in their backpack, and must not have been able to fit my computer so they left it. 

The computer footage showed that the thieves were able to get into our room with a physical key, even though the rooms were also locked with electronic cards.  The hotel is going to try to revamp their security.  They said this is the first theft in many years there.  The thieves were long gone and not coming back so there was not much else to do.  We decided not to rush to call the police because we were told they would only try to get money from us, or take my computer as evidence.

It's almost too bad that the thieves didn't take my computer, because if they had done so, we would have been able to help the police to catch them using the free program on my computer called, "Prey."  This program tracks the movement of my computer geographically, sets off alarms, locks up the computer, and even takes video of the person on the computer.

The hotel talked to the police the next day and Sara made a statement while I led a computer maintenance training.  We had to get a police report for our computer insurance.  But the hotel graciously paid for that large expense.  The hotel also graciously gave us cash to replace all the cash we had that was stolen.  Most hotels do not do this.  They all have signs up saying they aren't responsible if things get stolen.  But this hotel offered without us asking.  They clearly value World Renew's regular business.  More good news came when I discovered I could freeze my modem account and get the airtime transferred (at least 6 months worth), to a new modem. 

All in all, you can see that we were very blessed.  The thieves did not take near as much as they could have.  We were very relieved that they only took our cash and didn't just grab our wallets whole.  We were relieved that they did not steal our Kindles or mp3 players. 

Sara has handled her computer being stolen very well, much better than I would have.  There has been much more laughter than tears.  More good news was that World Renew had a computer Sara could borrow while she waited for a new one.  And providentially our friend visited just weeks after the event, bringing the new computer with her.  My brother served us by getting the new computer up and running and everything downloaded for it.  It's really amazing how well everything came together.  We are also thankful that Sara backed up her files just a couple weeks before this event and didn't lose anything important.

But this whole episode was disturbing in another way.  These thieves did not simply see an opportunity to steal and then run.  They studied us for days.  They had been in the hotel with us, eating at tables beside us, watching us, greeting us, etc. 

We had gotten lazy in our security consciousness, but this episode makes us much more security conscious.  I am very against living in fear, and living in mistrust of people.  Around the world, I have seen some missionaries live this way and I feel like they might as well go back to their home country.  You can't live and you can't do ministry, unless you are willing to trust people and live out of love not in constant fear.  This episode has not increased my fear of people, but it has given us the new rule that we will take our computers with us every time we leave the room, no matter how much hassle it is! 

I also reflect on this episode realizing that I will never be truly in poverty.  We have too good of a social network.  We are too firmly entrenched in the extended family of God's Church.  It is a privilege most people in the world do not enjoy.  We have so many supporters, so many people that care about us, that even when things like this happen and things get stolen, we have insurance, we have friends, we have people who give to us.  Thus in an episode like this, I find myself praising God for all he has provided.  I am rich in community, in loving friends, and in family.  God has blessed us so incredibly much, far beyond what we need, and beyond even what we want, and I need to respond daily in gratitude, praise, and generosity to others.

So if you want to pray about this, I ask for only two things:
1.  Praise and thank God for his sovereignty that things worked out so well.  And thank God for the amazing ways he has provided for us.
2.  Pray for the thieves that they repent and come to know Jesus as their Savior and Lord so that one day in the New Creation, we can meet and hug and reconcile and laugh with joy together at God's great mercies.