Ok, so i want to write this and have it be the first blog post since all our stuff was stolen. i want to write about it and move on. Which we have already, but this will make it final and complete.
On April 9, Steve, Indie and I came home together. We walked home from school. We came and unlocked our gate, made our way up to the house. We unlocked the gate to our porch, and then unlocked our front door. I was the first in the house and noticed immediately that light was pouring in from our hallway. I thought that was ood. I thought that maybe the door to Nancy's room had swung open (which it never does). As i got closer, i realized that the light was coming from a side door in the hallway that we never use...and at this instant, i knew. I knew that we had been robbed. I turned and in one motion saw that our device area in our livingroom had been wiped clean. I moved toward our bedroom fearing that our documents and bank cards had been stolen. As i entered the room, I saw that it had been ransacked. Everything taken out and gone through. Immediately, i fell to the business of looking for passports and vital documents, bank cards etc. Quickly, and VERY thankfully, i found all of our passports, cards, anything tied to our identity. Whew! Praise God! Then began the task of finding out what was taken. I was in a state of shock, I'm sure. I remember not knowing what to feel. People had gone through our things, our personal belongings, had handled them. It was strange. and yet....life went one. When we were on our way back to the house...it was lunch time, and we were hungry. Steve left to go to the police station and file a report. i stayed home with Indie and fried up some yam. We had the rest of our kids stay at the Boatengs until the police could come, but nothing comes quickly here.
We had all of our devices for communicating with loved ones, family, friends, Christian brothers and sisters, stolen. All we had left was Steve's blackberry. One phone. And we were thankful. Thankful, that of everything most important to us none of that was taken. Our kids were safe. Our eternities unchanged. What did the robbers get? A macbook, a samsung tablet, a camera, 4 phones, all chargers an accessories, 2 modems (one fixed, one wireless), power bars, all the money we had in the house. This is what i can remember. You know what else they took? All my pictures from the last 8 years. All my files and documents. I suppose i am partly to blame for that....should've had them backed up somewhere. I will from now on.
So what have we done since the robbery? We have made our house more secure. We've added 8 more locks on 3 doors. We replaced the door that had been destroyed and broken into with a pick axe. We were thankful that we could still communicate through Steve's phone. And we rested in the fact that the things that were/are truly important to us were unharmed. We had no plan to replace things. We simply couldn't.
What happened next was God's doing. There were really only a few people who offered to help us, but help us they did!! Within a day we had the money that was stolen replaced. Within a week, we had enough money to replace almost all of the above items. Within a month, we had enough money to completely replace all items and make the trip to Accra to pick them up at the airport. God is good! He totally replaced and provided for us through His people. We are so thankful!! So thankful!!
Our hope is not in this life. It could all be taken again. I pray not. Ultimately, though, our hope is for heaven where neither moth, nor rust destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. Our hope is one that is both sure and stedfast and which goes beyond the grave. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
