A new chapter for the book

Well it is widley agreed that every missionary eventually writes a book about their experiences, and this week will definately be in mine if I every get round to writing one!

Many of you will have heard via facebook or twitter that this thursday my laptop was stolen from me at gunpoint, quite shocking esp for us brits, however here it is par for the course, the majority of street theft here involves a gun of some sort, be it real or fake. So I have to take some of the blame for what happened as it wasnt the wisest move ever!

So here is the story in full:

Thursday we (Rosa the leader of  the ministry and I) decided to hold the youth group at the El Refugio building as we had asked Senora Ester to teach the youth how to make a traditional Colombian dish and the kitchen here is a lot better than the church we have been using, however this landed us with the problem of where to practice the dance that they have been learning with one of the girls from the youth/kids dance ministry Kings Kids, as the main room is currently full of wooden beams for the construction. We agreed that the only space we could really use was the patio in front of the house. We also had the issue of how to play music so they could hear it to dance to as the sound system we have is at the church. Therefore we made the fateful decision for me to take my laptop out and play the music on that, it wasnt very loud but as I sat in the middle of the kids they could just about hear it. We had only been out there about 15 minutes when a guy walked in through the gates and walked towards me with a smile, not unusual with all the builders coming in and out, but as he got near he reached under his t-shirt and pulled out a gun, he pointed it at me and motioned with it towards the laptop. Naturally I jumped throwing the laptop onto the floor off my lap, gathered it up and handed it over, then the man walked back out, calm as you like, got onto his mates motorbike and drove off! 

Obviously chaos ensued back here with me Anita and he kids running all over calling for help, Rosa rang the police and they came quickly, all of the kids were able to give a description, better than me as I had been more focused on the gun! and they sent people all over the area looking for the 2 men. I went straight onto the office computer to change all the passwords and things and then to my room to cry, telling all the youth to carry on with Esther in the kitchen and make their arrepas. Before the youth all left we gathered them together to pray, we prayed that God would touch the thieves and help the police to return the laptop acknowledging this would be a miracle and then I prayed forgiveness over the thieves too, and found I could do so from the heart, I hoped this would impact the young people as we have taught them about the need to forgive, then the youth left. Shortly after one of the policemen came back saying they had found a laptop and asked me what make mine was, I told him it was a Toshiba and he said it was a Toshiba they had found, we all rejoiced and Martin went in the car to collect the youth to tell them, but by the time he came back the other policeman came back and said it wasn't a Toshiba but at Compaq :( However we are still praying and we know it will have a big impact on the youth if they see this miracle.)

Thursday night was very hard and I felt very emotional crying all the time, however more about the loss of the laptop than the gun, even commenting to myself that the gin thing will prob hit me later! I went up to the 2nd floor of the building site to spend sometime alone with God and spoke allowed to satan saying that he was NOT going to get me out of here, Cartagena is now MY city and I am NOT GOING ANYWHERE!! Martin and Rosa came over later on as well and we just chatted and ate crisps and drank soft drinks which helped me take my mind off things. Friday was also difficult as naturally all of the kids had heard from the youth what had happened and all wanted to asked me about it, but at that time I couldn't talk about it without crying again so I busied myself with other things. In the afternoon a team came from Mexico/USA with the intention of praying with all the team one by one, not knowing what had happend the day before so I was able to get prayer with them, in English, a real answer to a prayer I had prayed the night before, and they had some wonderful words and pictures for me, including one of a serpant ready to strike but when he did he hit a rock and broke his teeth. The man who saw this said after he realised my name means rock and felt God was saying that I am protected and whatever tries to come against me will fail. The way I see it is also that the damage was done to the serpant, and so am praying that what Satan meant for bad in this situation will come to GOOD esp in relation to my work with the youth. Rosa had said that she was really touched by their reaction, very protective of me and angry towards the men who had done it, the 3 boy wishing they had reacted to tackle the man to the ground!! (3 teenage boys against an armed man - thank God they didnt!!)

Friday night I went to the cinema and Saturday Johanna and I sat on the front where I had been sat before to help me overcome the fear that had begun to settle in me, Writing this on Sunday afternoon I am still a bit jumpy but a lot calmer, now more annoyed about not having a laptop!! and loosing so much work that I had done on it!!  

I know without a doubt that the speed at which I have felt calm and ready to continue with my life here has everything to do with the mountain of people who have been praying for me, so THANK YOU ALL 

I am also pleased to say that even before this happened God had provided me with enough money to buy a replacement laptop if mine doesn't come home.

Thank you all again 

God is Good 

Petra