The Kelly and Douglas Story

Dear friends: I began to write this during my time in Brazil, but have just finished it now. It's a bit of a novel, so make sure you have some time. :)

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There are so many what ifs. What if we'd been shown how to turn on the upstairs alarm? What if I just brought my camera with me to the church? What if we'd remembered to lock the door to our balcony as we usually did?

But what ifs don't change anything, and you just have to put them aside and focus on what you can learn from the situation.

It wasn't raining on Thursday morning, and I wanted to take advantage of the nice weather. So I got my camera and walked to the lake at the end of our street. I sat down to pray and thank God for the magnificent mountains and the beautiful sunrise, and then began to snap some shots. As I walked back, I was approached by a twenty-something year old pregnant girl who began speaking to me in Portugese. I could only respond with "Naõ fala Portugese" and a smile, which she returned. Soon after I walked in the house and closed the door, I heard the doorbell, and my teammate Gabi and I answered. There stood the smiling girl, wanting to talk once more. Eager to interact with people and practice the language, Gabi and I took the dictionary and went to meet her. Through very broken Portugese and a lot of pointing at words, we figured out that this girl, Kelly, needed R$10(about 5 Canadian dollars and 40 Rand) to get on the bus. I am always hesitant to give money but Gabi seemed eager and I wanted to be Christ-like so I agreed to split the cost with her. Kelly was very grateful and we told her to come for supper any time(we loved having people over for supper). We didn't really expect to see her again, and we didn't know what she would do with the money, but we committed her into God's hands and didn't give it much more thought.

That night as we were walking home in the rain, we saw two figures on the sidewalk. As we approached, we recognized Kelly, but weren't sure who the young man was that stood by her. We greeted them, and Kelly introduced the guy as her brother, Douglas. We "chatted" with them for a while and walked to our house. As we said goodbye, Kelly made a "you must always lock the door" motion. We always were careful to lock the door though, so we weren't too concerned about her comment.

The next day, Kelly and Douglas showed up for supper and we gladly invited them in. We tried our best to make conversation - we made jokes, played card games, showed them pictures of South Africa, and played music for them. We had a lovely time, and then we took them to the church where we played pool and foosball. We said goodbye at the end of the night and went home.

They came to our house again the following day, and asked, "Jantar?" Which means "supper" in Portugese. My co-leader Billy made a face and mumbled something about having a meeting, so we tried in our very broken Portugese to explain that we had some things to do, but we'd meet them at the church at 8pm. Douglas left right away while Kelly stayed for some coffee. I played guitar and sang for her and we chatted for a while before she left.

They met us about an hour and a half later at the church, where they seemed a bit uncomfortable. Not that I blamed them - the whole evening was focused on a Christian debate about secular music. It was obviously not something they were interested in and they probably felt intimidated by all of the new people. We tried our best to introduce them to our friends and make sure they were having a good time. Sometime during the evening, Douglas disappeared. We hardly even noticed. The evening came to a close, we ate hot dogs, said goodbye to Kelly, and headed home. Just before the house came into view, I suddenly felt uneasy. I can't really explain it - I just sensed that something was wrong. But as I turned the corner and saw that the house was still standing, I felt better. We opened the door and everything was normal. As the rest of the team prepared supper, I went upstairs to the girls' room. Before we'd left that evening I felt that I should lock our room door, which I hadn't done before - just a feeling. So I found the key in the drawer where I'd left it and opened up. My very first thought when I saw the chaos was "I really don't think Gabi and Bertine would leave the room like this." It looked like a tornado had hit our room. The drawers were opened, things strewn carelessly all over the bed and the floor. I immediately looked in the drawer where I kept my camera and I'm sure you can guess the rest of the story - it was gone. Along with Bertine's laptop, Gabi's cell phone, laptop, bag which contained her passport, my money, and the team money. Immediately I called the team up to the room and tried to remain calm. "It's okay," I said. "It's just stuff." In my mind, however, thoughts like "the second camera this year. My mom will be so disappointed" tried to consume me. But I pushed them aside as we began to pray and sing and thank God for the situation. Right then and there we forgave Kelly and Douglas for their betrayal and we prayed for them. We could only imagine what they'd do with the money they received from the expensive items. I was extremely impressed by how each member of my team handled the situation, which was such a huge blessing. Tony and I then went back to the church we'd just left, explained the situation, and received more prayer before some English/Portuguese speaking friends took us in their car to the police station. We filed a report, waited for what seemed like forever, and then headed home. We had a very late supper - I think by this point it was 1 am - and prayed some more. We realized that the sad part of the situation wasn't that we lost our stuff, but that our new friends were drug addicts and would probably continue to live this lifestyle until they get caught and put in jail.

My biggest worry was Gabi's passport. Having lost my own passport earlier this year, I know how much of a hassle it is to get a new one - especially in three weeks. I dreaded the process. I dreaded the thought of Gabi staying in Brazil while we went back to South Africa - she was such a vital part of our team! But I put it in God's hands and said, "Lord, I trust You. Please help us." As we got ready for bed, Billy and Tony sat and their room, discussing the evening's events. Billy said, "Tony, we really have to pray for Gabi's passport," to which Tony replied, "Yeah, that could be a big problem." Friends, I don't speak a word of a lie when I tell you that immediately after those words left Tony's mouth, Gabi exclaimed from the other room, "I found my passport!" We all cheered and thanked God. We're still not sure why or how it happened. Douglas took Gabi's bag which contained many papers and important documents, such as her passport - but for some reason, he must have taken the passport out before he filled it with his loot. It seemed impractical. Either you dump everything out of the bag before you steal it or you leave everything in. It doesn't make sense to look through the bag and take a valuable item out first. But regardless of how strange it was, we were very thankful and I was extremely relieved.

The next morning I woke up and sat down with my Bible and journal. At the beginning of our time in Brazil, I made a Bible reading plan in which I wanted to read through Isaiah and all of the small letters in the New Testament. I had just finished reading James the day before, and the next book on the list was 1 Peter. It had been a while since I'd read it last, and I'd forgotten that it was all about suffering for doing what is right. As I read the book, I was absolutely amazed at how appropriate it was for our situation. Verses like "God has something stored up for you in heaven, where it will never decay or be ruined or disappear" (1:4), "You don't gain anything by being punished for some wrong you have done. But God will bless you, if you have to suffer for doing something good" (2:20), "Can anyone really harm you for being eager to do good deeds? Even if you have to suffer for doing good things, God will bless you. So stop being afraid and don't worry about what people might do. Honor Christ and let Him be the Lord of your life" (3:13-15), "Welcome people into your home and don't grumble about it" (4:9), "You are better off to obey God and suffer for doing right than to suffer for doing wrong" (3:17), and "If you suffer for obeying God, you must have complete faith in your faithful Creator and keep on doing right" (4:19). It was like God was speaking directly to me through His Word. I excitedly told Gabi, who told me that she had read it just two days ago, and felt that it had prepared her for what happened! She showed me her journal entry from the day the robbery happened, and I was in awe. She had been praying that God would help her to let go of her material possessions and that He would become more important than anything she owned. I guess you have to be careful what you pray for!

As a result of our situation, we grew closer to God and closer to each other, just as we'd been praying for over the previous week. We learned not to hold on tightly to our material possessions. We agreed that we were glad we'd shown Kelly and Douglas the love of Christ, even if it meant losing our possessions, because God has never said "Welcome people into your home unless you think they're drug addicts and will probably steal your stuff." We are called to love ALL people, and by loving people we have to SHOW them love in practical ways. We really did our best to love Kelly and Douglas and we didn't regret it. I learned that my identity is not in my photography skills, but in Christ. It didn't come easily, though, because my first professional-ish camera was stolen earlier this year and in May my Mom had generously blessed me with an even better one. It wasn't just that the camera was gone, but that the ability to pursue my passion was put on hold for a while. This is the journal entry I wrote on October 20, two days after the robbery. It reads:

"Lord, 'I want You more than gold or silver or cameras... only You can satisfy.' 'You're all I want - You're all I've ever needed - help me know You are near.' The words of these songs have a different meaning for me now. Lord, You are my passion. You are my life. I will serve You and worship You with whatever I have. Photography is not my identity. You are my identity. I pray that You will help me to focus on Your beauty and just take it in and appreciate it. I pray that I will not be sad about this any longer. When You want me to have a camera again, You'll let me know. But until then, I want to explore other areas of worship - writing and playing music, writing stories. You are my God, and I love You and will follow You no matter what."

I'm still without a camera, but I hardly think about it - I really am enjoying developing other skills and thanking God for beautiful landscapes or beautiful children when I see them. God was so good and faithful - I don't think He was at all sad that our stuff was stolen - He really used it to teach us and bring us closer to Him. But He blessed us with little things like warning me to lock the door of our room - because of that, the thieves were unable to enter into the rest of the house. There are so many other little details that make this story exciting - but in the end, it turned out to be an experience that we viewed as positive and growth-producing. I think it's amazing how God can take what seems like a bad situation and turn it into something good. "We know that God is always at work for the good of everyone who loves Him." (Romans 8:28)

Thanks for reading.

Lindsay