Holding things loosely…

Yesterday I got robbed… apparently.  It was the weirdest thing.

Bethany and I went out in the morning to drive around and look at houses, so I brought my camera…  its pretty awesome and was a gift from the Peace youth group before I moved.  (just a p.s. here… it also had a really fun etsy strap!)  But that’s not the point of this story…

So after some driving around we stop at a store and Bethany points out that I should take my camera in so no one breaks into the car to steal it.  That is a very good and responsible idea… so it goes in my purse.  I have a short strapped under the arm purse.

When we leave the store my car won’t start… even though it has a brand new battery… ugh.  So we wait to get a jump.  Then we continue running errands but leave the car running and one of us in it with both of our purses the whole time.  While the car is running the battery dies… again.  ugh.  So we get another jump and head home.

At home I start looking around for my camera, which should still be in my purse… but its not.  Its gone from all the places it could reasonably be.

There are only 3 options… either someone stole it out of my purse while it was under my arm (which is an awfully big item to pickpocket), they came into the car where one of us was sitting and stole it (not likely), or it just disappeared into thin air (actually the most likely seeming of the three…).

We have retraced our steps and thought through the morning a thousand times… and at the end we can only say that we are totally befuddled.  But sadly… being befuddled and feeling like it shouldn’t have happened hasn’t brought my camera back… :(

The day wasn’t awesome anyway b/c we haven’t had enough money come in for the projects and had to fire about half of our Honduran workers.  That’s just never fun.  And the team coming from AZ missed flights and ended up stranded in Tegucigalpa.  12 of them made it late last night with no luggage and 5 will come in this morning, most likely with no luggage.

That’s when the day should have ended… but…

I was driving my car back from the dorms around 9:15 last night (after getting another new battery and with the knowledge that I need a new alternator that may not be available for purchase in this town).  It had been raining and there was a puddle in front of me.  I watched a car drive out of it so assumed it wasn’t too deep… but I had no idea.  15 seconds later the car died in water up to my mid-thigh.  Ugh.  So there we sat.  John came and rescued us, b/c he’s awesome.  If I had had a camera, which we all know I didn’t… I would have taken a picture of John and I pushing the car, me in my dress, in water 3 1/2 feet deep.  Or a picture of John pushing my car with his truck all the way back to house providing a night’s worth of entertainment for the security guys.  Or I would have illustrated this catastrophe for you by taking a picture of my air filter literally dripping water.  But you’ll just have to imagine.

The car wouldn’t start… shocker.  So we’re praying a miracle over it that it will dry out and start today.  But until I get a new alternator and its all working… I’m benching it.  I’m just done.

Yesterday I would have moved back to NC.

Coming right on the heels of the Pettengill’s house getting robbed, I can’t help but think the Lord wants us to hold loosely to our stuff no matter where we live.  It’s a tough lesson.  I would tell you that stuff doesn’t mean that much to me, its just stuff.  But I guess it’s a lie b/c I’m pretty sad.  And I feel responsible for driving through a water trap and for not zipping my purse up.

So as we sat stranded in a puddle/river/lake waiting for John, Bethany and I just prayed that we would learn the lessons God wants us to learn.  That we would hold our things loosely and our God tightly.  That we would have eternal perspective and trust that the Lord is good.  You can pray that for us…