This was a tough month, but the worst was this past weekend. I spent the weekend with 21 other Baptist youth workers praying, dreaming and getting to know each other.
On Saturday night, I had the opportunity to lead a session entitled, “Do examples attract or is it something else?” (I didn’t come up with the title - that was decided by the man who put the weekend together.)
The short version of the story is that I feel like I totally bombed out. I can’t even give you a clear 1-2-3 as to why I feel like that, but I was embarrassed to even think about the evening any more.
That was bad enough, but the hammer came down hard early on Sunday morning when I awoke (2nd to get up) and discovered with Peto that someone had come into the house where we were sleeping - while we were sleeping - and stole 2 laptops (mine included), a few cell phones, several pairs of shoes and more. The total loss that I personally experienced comes just short of $3900. They took my Apple PowerBook, iPod Video and digital Olympus camera, along with a bunch of cables and adapters, my “dob kit” and more.
I’ve spent the last 2 days changing passwords and trying to recover files and information from my desktop (which the kids use more than I do - until now, that is!) and having many, many “Oh, yeah!” moments as I recall different accounts & passwords that I should change. Unfortunately, I hadn’t done a backup in quite some time, so I’ve lost quite a bit of stuff.
As I (and the others who were robbed) talked - and over the past 2 days as I’ve thought - I realized that our Lord watched over the entire affair as it happened during the 3 hours that no one was awake (3:00am - 6:00am) and could easily have awakened one of the 21 people sleeping in that building. For some reason, He allowed us to sleep heavily and not hear any shuffling or noises of any kind. (We’ve ruled out an inside job because only 4 of us had cars and those were easily accessible to us all to see inside.)
My buddy, Jeff, suggested that maybe the Lord didn’t want me to travel to Poland this week as planned (I cancelled the trip in order to take care of all of these trivial - but important - details.) That’s a thought that hadn’t crossed my mind. God does work in strange ways, so it is very possible He was protecting me from something or that He wanted me here Banska Bystrica this week for a reason.
What is interesting is my reaction to the whole endeavor. As I thought about it, I was thankful that they had removed my passport, car papers, international driver’s license, car keys, house keys and keys to the church building as well as both of my Bibles (one English version that was a gift from Linda and the other a Slovak version) and 2 notebooks. I find myself strangely amused at their “thoughtfulness” at not making my life much more complicated by stealing my car, passport and more.
On the other hand, as I sat with the policeman giving my report, he asked me, “If the criminal is caught, do you want him to be prosecuted?”
I paused, not because I didn’t understand, but because I actually wondered if that’s what I wanted.
“It’s obvious that this is not the first time that these people have done this - it was too professionally done. Do you want them prosecuted?”
“Yes,” I answered.
I realize that I am the steward of these items and that if the Lord “stood by and watched” without waking anyone, that I simply needed to trust in Him to provide me more of “HIS” stuff to use. I’m upset, no doubt, but at the same time, I have done all I can do to retrieve the items. I’ve put out the word to Mac shops in Slovakia, the police (including giving the serial numbers), prayed and prayed some more (as well as asking others to pray). What more is there to do but wait?
The police officer said that if I haven’t heard anything in 2 months, that the case will be closed, so KEEP PRAYING!
More later...
***************************
For those of you who are interested, here is a listing of all that I recall that was stolen and the value:
POWERBOOK 2500
iPOD VIDEO 299
DVI TO VGA ADAPTER 19
S-VIDEO ADAPTER 19
iPOD VIDEO microphone 11
iPod VIDEO iGriffin iTrip 30
IPOD VIDEO CHARGER & CORD 29
OLYMPUS SP-350 DIGITAL CAMERA 249
512 MEG MEMORY CARD 35
KODAK RECHARGE-ABLE BATTERIES 15
CLINIC LOTION 16
OLYMPUS SP-350 DIGITAL CAMERA 249
512 MEG MEMORY CARD 35
KODAK RECHARGE-ABLE BATTERIES 15
SHOWER KIT 25
RAZOR, BLADES, SHOWER GEL, ETC 30
COMPUTER BAG 100
HeadSet for New Cell Phone 30
HeadSet for Old Cell Phone 25
Carrying Case for Digital Camera 20
Data cable for cell phone 30
iPoD VIDEO case 15
Business Card Case 15
1 pound bag Dark Chocolate Peanut M&Ms 2.5 These were just sent in a gift box from Emily on Friday - :-(
All of that totals just over $3800
On Saturday night, I had the opportunity to lead a session entitled, “Do examples attract or is it something else?” (I didn’t come up with the title - that was decided by the man who put the weekend together.)
The short version of the story is that I feel like I totally bombed out. I can’t even give you a clear 1-2-3 as to why I feel like that, but I was embarrassed to even think about the evening any more.
That was bad enough, but the hammer came down hard early on Sunday morning when I awoke (2nd to get up) and discovered with Peto that someone had come into the house where we were sleeping - while we were sleeping - and stole 2 laptops (mine included), a few cell phones, several pairs of shoes and more. The total loss that I personally experienced comes just short of $3900. They took my Apple PowerBook, iPod Video and digital Olympus camera, along with a bunch of cables and adapters, my “dob kit” and more.
I’ve spent the last 2 days changing passwords and trying to recover files and information from my desktop (which the kids use more than I do - until now, that is!) and having many, many “Oh, yeah!” moments as I recall different accounts & passwords that I should change. Unfortunately, I hadn’t done a backup in quite some time, so I’ve lost quite a bit of stuff.
As I (and the others who were robbed) talked - and over the past 2 days as I’ve thought - I realized that our Lord watched over the entire affair as it happened during the 3 hours that no one was awake (3:00am - 6:00am) and could easily have awakened one of the 21 people sleeping in that building. For some reason, He allowed us to sleep heavily and not hear any shuffling or noises of any kind. (We’ve ruled out an inside job because only 4 of us had cars and those were easily accessible to us all to see inside.)
My buddy, Jeff, suggested that maybe the Lord didn’t want me to travel to Poland this week as planned (I cancelled the trip in order to take care of all of these trivial - but important - details.) That’s a thought that hadn’t crossed my mind. God does work in strange ways, so it is very possible He was protecting me from something or that He wanted me here Banska Bystrica this week for a reason.
What is interesting is my reaction to the whole endeavor. As I thought about it, I was thankful that they had removed my passport, car papers, international driver’s license, car keys, house keys and keys to the church building as well as both of my Bibles (one English version that was a gift from Linda and the other a Slovak version) and 2 notebooks. I find myself strangely amused at their “thoughtfulness” at not making my life much more complicated by stealing my car, passport and more.
On the other hand, as I sat with the policeman giving my report, he asked me, “If the criminal is caught, do you want him to be prosecuted?”
I paused, not because I didn’t understand, but because I actually wondered if that’s what I wanted.
“It’s obvious that this is not the first time that these people have done this - it was too professionally done. Do you want them prosecuted?”
“Yes,” I answered.
I realize that I am the steward of these items and that if the Lord “stood by and watched” without waking anyone, that I simply needed to trust in Him to provide me more of “HIS” stuff to use. I’m upset, no doubt, but at the same time, I have done all I can do to retrieve the items. I’ve put out the word to Mac shops in Slovakia, the police (including giving the serial numbers), prayed and prayed some more (as well as asking others to pray). What more is there to do but wait?
The police officer said that if I haven’t heard anything in 2 months, that the case will be closed, so KEEP PRAYING!
More later...
***************************
For those of you who are interested, here is a listing of all that I recall that was stolen and the value:
POWERBOOK 2500
iPOD VIDEO 299
DVI TO VGA ADAPTER 19
S-VIDEO ADAPTER 19
iPOD VIDEO microphone 11
iPod VIDEO iGriffin iTrip 30
IPOD VIDEO CHARGER & CORD 29
OLYMPUS SP-350 DIGITAL CAMERA 249
512 MEG MEMORY CARD 35
KODAK RECHARGE-ABLE BATTERIES 15
CLINIC LOTION 16
OLYMPUS SP-350 DIGITAL CAMERA 249
512 MEG MEMORY CARD 35
KODAK RECHARGE-ABLE BATTERIES 15
SHOWER KIT 25
RAZOR, BLADES, SHOWER GEL, ETC 30
COMPUTER BAG 100
HeadSet for New Cell Phone 30
HeadSet for Old Cell Phone 25
Carrying Case for Digital Camera 20
Data cable for cell phone 30
iPoD VIDEO case 15
Business Card Case 15
1 pound bag Dark Chocolate Peanut M&Ms 2.5 These were just sent in a gift box from Emily on Friday - :-(
All of that totals just over $3800
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