So about a week ago I was traveling by
myself here in Nicaragua from one of our teams out to another one.
After my first leg of the journey, I had to transfer Micro-buses in
the capital city of Managua, a notoriously dangerous place for
foreigners. As I was getting my bags out of the back of the
van, the driver and conductor came to “help” me with my stuff. As
one was handing me my big pack, the other decided to attempt to
relive me of my smaller one. As he put his hands on my small bag I
realized what was going on and thought to myself “WELL, this
is happening. These guys are robbing me.” I have to say I was not
really surprised that someone here would try to rob me but I was a
little surprised that it came from the driver and conductor of the
Micro-bus. Usually it is someone on the bus or on the street, ya
know, just a regular person. Micro-buses too are generally know to be
the somewhat safer way to travel around here so it was just
unexpected that these guys are the ones who did it.
Anyway, my small day pack contained my
computer, camera, and other valuables so I had already made the
decision that if I had to lose something it was gonna be my wallet
and not my bags. My wallet only had the equivalent of $6 USD and
debit cards I would have to cancel. So sure enough, as I made sure to
secure both of my bags with my hands the guy grabbing my small one
changed his plan knowing he couldn’t get it easily and just plunged
his hand in my pocket, got my wallet, and jumped on to a passing
Micro bus that was already moving. They often travel with the door
open and this other bus was probably already in on it anyway to help
him make his get away. I actually knew what was going on the whole
time and was thankful that my head stayed clear and calm and that I
was able to preserve my bags. I had split my money up all over my
person in all the different pockets in order to be safe so I wasn’t
stranded there with no money.
I actually was not mad believe it or
not. That is how much the Lord has changed who I am I guess. I
realized that even just a few short years ago I would be going around
telling everyone how unfairly I had been treated and probably
portrayed the guys who did it as villains in a hateful way ever time
I told the story. But truthfully, the first thing I thought was “oh
well, it happens. They need it a lot more than I do. I hope that
somehow through it God is able to meet them and their souls will be
saved.” I don’t mean that in a “oh look how good and spiritual I
am” way at all so I hope you don’t take it that way. If I boast in
anything I boast in how Christ has been able to transform a selfish,
in his own eyes victimized, attention seeker into someone who really
can pray for his enemies. That is the work of God and not of me.
I was able to get my cards canceled and
all they got was a $23 tank of gas on my debit before it stopped
working for them. The Lord reminded me of the verse when Jesus said
that if someone takes your coat to give him your cloak too. That just
doesn’t make sense to selfishness. That is why love will always have
the upper hand, because selfishness just can’t ever figure love out.
So honestly they can have the tank of gas on me. The bank said it
would probably get reimbursed to me so I guess they can have it on
the bank;-) but even if I don’t get it back, I hope that gas helped
them out and what is $23 dollars to make me angry and cost me all
kinds of frustration and grief. It is actually a lot easier and
beneficial to me to just hope it helped them and move on.
All this has just shown me that it
really is possible to do the crazy, doesn’t make sense things that
Jesus told us to and that they really are better. I hope you can
experience that too.
