It's pretty understood in the United States that stealing is wrong. We've noticed that it's not quite the same in Central America, especially with the street kids. It's not that they're out to get you, they just haven't been taught the importance of honesty and treating others as they'd like to be treated.
So our main building here at Zion's gate is divided into three main parts:
- dining/hang out area
- kitchen/pulperia/random sitting room
- the big room.
The big room is just for our Squad- none of the boys are supposed to go in there- but the rest of the building are free reign (minus the pulperia). There's a table in the big room with extension cords and power strips for charging our various electronics (including razors and toothbrushes). It's been a battle to 1. get everyone to put their electronics on this table instead of on a table in the other room (where it'd be more likely to be stolen), and 2. to keep the boys out of the big room with all our electronics.
If you know me, you know that I'm pretty careful with my belongings. I've been an organization freak since childhood. Everything has a home in my room, everything goes in its home as soon as I walk through the door. So of course I would charge my phone on the correct electronics table, only when there are people from the squad in the room, and only just until it was fully charged.
And that's exactly what I did last Saturday. I came back to check on it 20 minutes later, and my phone was gone.
Naturally, I checked my bags, my tent, my jacket, the rest of the room, etc.- all without luck. My next thought was that there are probably more than 30 black iPhones on this squad, some of which are bound to have black Otterbox cases- it's highly likely that someone accidently took it thinking it was theirs. So I spread the word that I was missing a black iPhone, but again, no luck. Then I thought "Surely someone will notice they took the wrong phone by tomorrow morning"… again, no luck. And none the next day. Or the next.
Without going into much more detail, the conclusion is that one of the boys here took it, and they're not allowed in this building at all anymore. Beyond that, I have no clue where it might be. It might be that someone on the squad still has it (2 teams left early Sunday morning for a different ministry site for the week)- and that's what I'm hoping for.
This whole week I've had to struggle with this. It's not that I’m super attached to my phone- I don't even use it as a phone anymore, I primarily use it for an alarm, music, books, as a translator, to take pictures, and to Facetime with family back home. It's just way more convenient than taking a computer with you to Wi-Fi if you only have a few things to check on.
So I've been asking God if He'd rather me pray for my iPhone to return or if He wants me to let it go. Initially, I felt He wanted me to pray for it to return, so I did. I prayed that He would convict the person who took it (if it was actually stolen), lead them to repentance, and that He would ultimately be glorified. I prayed that through it all, that whoever took it would have a greater understanding of His Love through this whole thing- because His kindness leads us to repentance.
I was praying again last night (Tuesday night) over the whole thing and asking if God wanted me to keep praying for the phone to return, and I heard Him say,
"If you had to choose between growing in knowledge and intimacy with me this year and having this phone for the rest of the race, what would you choose?"
Silly question, right? Of course it'd be Him. But the more I thought about doing the Race without that little piece of technology, the harder it was to relinquish it. It's just SUPER handy! It's small, it takes good pictures, it connects to Wi-Fi, it enables me to communicate with family and friends, I just started a new book on it, and it has a LOT of great music on it! What's so bad about an iPhone?
I don't think this situation is about me being attached to my phone, because as useful as I think it is, I really don't use it that much- and I've only had it for about a month… I joined the bandwagon late, I know…
I think this is more about learning to listen to what God wants me to pray for and learning to discern between my fleshly desires and His desires. It's not that He wanted my phone to be stolen or that He doesn't have the power to bring it back (because He DOES and He CAN), but He is using this situation to teach me to listen to Him for how He wants me to react to every situation. He's also teaching me about persistent prayer. When something you use all the time is missing, you think about it a lot- if you pray about it every time you think about it, that's a LOT of prayer.
I titled this "Stolen Goods: Part 1" because I really hope there's a part 2. I really hope that it turns up. But if it comes down to it, it's just a little piece of technology, and my God is far more worthy of my attention and praise.
TO MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS… My communication will be more sporadic and less reliable… sorry! AND there'll probably be fewer pictures! Get used to it! 🙂
