We continue to discover things that were 'borrowed': various bags, leads, torches, binoculars, hot water bottles (!) etc etc. The worst is when Mimi, or less often Evan, discover that something of theirs was in their traveling bag, Mimis address book for instance, in which she was collecting the details of all her new friends, was taken. Each time we discovered something missing we were being kicked in the stomach.
However God has been proving He is in control. Pretty soon after we discovered the robbery we contacted the police who, despite holding no hope of recovery whatsoever, were very kind, the campsite owner as well put himself out to give me a lift to the police station and translated from Polish into German (my German friends you would have been most surprised at the amount of German i knew! I certainly was!!)
The insurance lady in England was hopeless and offered no assurance as to the outcome of a claim (which would in any case be very limited in its reimbursement). The small print of our travel insurance points out that no 'valuables' (for which read 'anything of any value') is covered for theft from an unattended vehicle and unattended means out of your sight. hmmm
We have been bearing up pretty well and M and I had agreed that all our stuff belonged to God anyway and if he chooses to redistribute it thats His call.
Thats pretty easy to say... Yesterday though he taught me more about trusting Him and allowing Him to take control again than He has done in a long time.
We were driving from Lithuania, just after visiting the pilgrimage site at the hill of crosses (which i hope to blog about next!). when i started thinking about my driving license... where was it... in my wallet... where is my wallet... ?... I went pale and my hands began to shake a little. I had left my wallet, which i don't use very often, locked in the car for safety. It had all my bank cards and credit cards in, we had just transferred pretty much the last of our savings to our current account. They could have cleared us out and maxed the credit cards easily in the 2 days it had stupidly taken me to realise they were missing.
I hit the steering wheel, i was close to losing it. We were in the far east of Europe and we could be stranded without a euro to our name. Misty took over driving as I called up each of the card companies.
One by one i explained and canceled my cards. But at each call the bank told me that there had been no transactions or that transactions had been attempted but were declined, they couldn't tell me why they were declined but they were.
As i hung up my final call, i began to cry. God had brought me to the point of despair. He had taken me to the edge of what i could bear. past my proud assurances that of course 'He was in control' to a point where He demonstrated His care, compassion, grace and faithfulness. I had got the point, God was in control, He loves us, everything is His, nothing belongs to us. He provides, not me.
It was that evening that i sat down to check emails here in Riga and God started to lavish his goodness on us. We have been so blessed, and felt so supported by our friends and family who have carried us in these last few days.
i cant say it loud enough nor long enough. Your encouragement has meant more than anything to me.
thank you from the depths of my heart, from the deepest breath within me, thank you my friends for carrying me and Misty, Mimi and Evan. You are so much more than we deserve,
thank you.
