'You cannot know the strength of your faith until its been tested.' -Life of Pi
This week God decided to test mine… twice.
First was with a painting that I was really excited about, and knew that it was something I would keep forever and tell the story about how it came to be. I took a photograph of this elephant in Chiang Mai, Thailand.. and two months later in Cambodia I came across a booth in the market selling beautiful canvas paintings.. I told my teammate that the paintings were exactly the look that I had envisioned getting done of my photograph once I got home, to put in my house someday. I thought it was probably crazy to ask the lady if she could paint it for me.. thinking she probably didn't even know the artist, or if she did she would charge me a lot extra for a custom one. I showed her the picture of the photo on my phone and asked her if she knew the artist and if she could paint it for me. She studied the photo for a few minutes, and said 'Yes, my sister paint. Large canvas $30. Please bring me copy.' I got super excited and so did my teammates who were with me. We went on a search around the city for a copy shop that could print a photo off of my phone. We found one and got the photo printed and took it back to her, she said to come back in 5 days and my painting would be ready. When I returned 5 days later she had to call the artist to bring it to the market because she was still working on it and the paint was still wet. She had spent all 5 days working on it and she was very proud of her work. It is beautiful, and looks exactly like the photograph!
I took it home, showed my team, and stared at it in my room for a few days before I had to mail it home. I took the canvas off of the wood frame and rolled it up. My squad leader Riah and I were going to hangout and run by Fedex to ship it on the way, so we started walking up to the main street near our house and grabbed a Tuk-Tuk. (The main mode of transportation in Cambodia besides mopeds. There are thousands of them.) When we got close to fedex, the tuk-tuk driver stopped and told us that tuk-tuks weren't allowed to go down the road any closer to fedex. So, confused and dreading a long walk in the heat, we got out and paid, started walking… and off he drove.. a few minutes later it hit me… 'WHERES MY CANVAS!? It's in the tuk-tuk!' Knots in my stomach immediately, telling Riah how mad at myself I was.. but there was nothing that I could do about it… there are THOUSANDS of tuk-tuks in this city. It's gone. There is no time to get her to paint another one. I haven't lost anything the whole race.. This is probably the most important physical thing that I had to remember the race so far. God, are you trying to teach me something? But I don't give up that easy. If he's trying to teach me something, maybe the lesson is in the return process. I decided that I was going to go tuk-tuk hunting the next day. I had everyone on my team take a picture of the photo with their phones.. and said 'If you see a tuk-tuk with black seats… stop him and show him the picture and see if he acts like he knows what you're talking about.' They were all sad that I lost it, and very willingly took the picture and wanted to help look..but they now admit that they had little faith in me ever finding it.
The next day, I had a two hour break between lunch and time to teach English. I told my team I was going to look for him, and I was determined.. I marched myself up to the main intersection of our community by myself. (Sorry AIM, sorry mom) I stood there for over an hour on the street corner as dozens of tuk-tuks stopped to ask if I needed a ride. All I remembered was that the driver from yesterday was pretty skinny.. and the tuk-tuk had black seats. So I showed the picture to every one that looked remotely similar. None of them speak hardly any English at all..so when they looked at the photo and seemed confused, I just told them never mind and went on to the next one. After standing in the sun in 95+ degree weather, no water with me, and no way of communicating with anyone… I decided I would wait for three more tuk-tuks to come by and then I would give up and go home. The next tuk-tuk that passed was full of children on their way home from school and sped right by me without hesitating. The one after that slowed down, but when I started to talk to him he just said 'No. No. I go home.' and drove away… So I prayed again, and said 'Okay God after the next tuk-tuk that passes me, I'm going home. If that painting was meant for someone else… then I surely hope it brings them a lot of joy!' I waited a few minutes… no tuk-tuks in sight. I turned to walk towards our house and a tuk-tuk pulled right up. The seats were brown…? and the driver had a helmet on so I couldn't tell if it was the same one. I had already put the picture in my pocket, so when he asked if I needed a ride, I said 'No thank you, I leave photo in tuk-tuk yesterday.' Blank stare… So I drew a big rectangle in the air with my arms…. still a blank stare.. I made a 'rolling' motion like I was rolling up the canvas and laying it accross the seat where I left it. He repeated the motion and looked back at me like he was thinking.. Then… (no idea why it took so long) I got the photo out and showed it to him, and made a big rectangle with my arms again. He smiled and said 'aaaaaaaaahhh' and walked to the back of the tuk-tuk. I thought NO WAY! This guy didn't even act like he knew what I was talking about…
He lifted up the back seat and pulled out the painting from underneath. I jumped and squealed 'AHHHH YAYYYYYYYY!' Grinning from ear to ear I took it from him and said thank you at least 10 times. He thought I was the biggest goofball ever. I couldn't stop smiling all the way home… could not believe that I was actually holding it in my hands again. I went home and showed my team, and they were so excited and could not believe that I actually found it! So then I went back to fedex again.. and now, my Cambodian painting of my Thai elephant photograph is on its way to the US of A with a little extra detail and excitement in its life story! I thought.. okay God, I now know that I need to be more careful with my things, and never doubt that you will take care of me in all situations. Everyone else thought it was nearly impossible for me to find it. But I'm determined, and don't give up a fight very easily.. I knew I could find it.. I had faith! And I did!
But He wasn't done yet. Two days later.. on our last day in Cambodia, I stayed home to try and finish editing all of my pictures, writing blogs, and making my video for the month so that I could go to the internet the next morning and post them before we headed to the airport. That night, my team and I had a pizza party for all of the children at the orphanage, then went back to the apartment to change and left at 6:30 to go to the night market to spend some time together on our last night in Cambodia. On the way home I told my team that I was excited about showing them the video of the month, and that I was going to be up all night finishing it and adding the pictures/video from the pizza party.. and I hadn't even started packing. I ran upstairs as soon as we got home, only to find that my computer was GONE.
I left it sitting on my bed when we left. As soon as I saw it wasn't there I knew it had been stolen because last week one of the college boys' laptop was stolen from the first floor off of his desk. I yelled down to my teammates and told them and they could not believe that this was happening. The knots were back in my stomach, and I thought about how I thought the painting was the worst thing I could have lost.. but now I realize that the laptop is even worse. It has 6 months of edited pictures on it. I immediately went down and woke up all of the boys who live in the house and told them what happened, and questioned them about if any of them thought that someone inside the house may have taken it. Communication barriers were very frustrating at this point, so all I could do was ask them if we could look through their stuff. My team all prayed for the situation to be solved, and I searched the house in every crack and corner. I went through all of the closets, backpacks, shelves, cabinets…looked under pots and pans.. inside rice bags…everywhere! And it was nowhere to be found. I had one of the college boys call the orphanage director and I told him what happened and asked him to come to the apartment. By this point it is after midnight, and I have everyone in the house wide awake and trying to help me get to the bottom of this.
The director came over and explained to me that right after we left for the market, one of the neighbors called him and said they saw two teenage boys climbing into our top balcony window. He came over to the apartment immediately to check, didn't see anyone or anything wrong, so he locked all of the windows and doors and left. He was so upset that this happened that he was crying and his wife was hyperventilating. They are upset that this would happen to someone who came to help and bless their ministry, and they do not want anything like it to continue happening to their teams. I asked him about calling the police, but he said that their police are very corrupt, and they would come 'document' the loss and charge me over $300.. and often the police partner with the robbers. An officer was angry with him earlier in the day because he saw a group of us walking and stopped at the orphanage to ask if we had paid and given our passport copies to the police department. We did not do this, had no idea that we were supposed to.. and the director told him he was not going to make us do it now when we are leaving in one day. This could have made the officer mad and he could have sent the boys over to rob our house as a way to get money out of us.
The director stayed and talked with me until after 3am, I still had not started packing, and I could not sleep the rest of the night. I got up at 6am and wrote a blog explaining what happened and that I would need help buying a new computer. Then determination sets in again, especially after the results that I got from being relentless in finding my painting. I drew a picture of a boy climbing up a ladder into a house with a laptop inside. I went outside and went to all of the neighbors, including the nearby college dorm, showing them the picture and doing a quick 'steal/take' motion. One of them went on their moped and picked up a young girl who speaks English and brought her back. She became my translator and helped me explain to all of the neighbors. I was pretty pitiful, and they all felt terrible that this happened. Some of them made phone calls which I didn't understand. We have been extremely friendly to all of the neighbors and their children all month, and they always seem very nice.
After talking to all of them, I went to the internet to post the blog, and searched my external hard drive and websites for any clue to how I could locate my computer or try to get it back. I cried the whole time we were there because I was angry that this happened on the day we are leaving the country, so I have no time to try and figure out what to do. And after the painting situation, I had huge faith that I COULD find my computer if I had more time. Trying to rush and come up with a plan in one hour… and still wasn't packed. I gave up when I couldn't remember the password to get into my iCloud, and told my teammates that there was no chance in me getting it back before we had to leave the country in a few hours. On the walk home I stopped in a used computer store and asked them if they knew anything. We walked by the orphanage and said our goodbyes, the staff was all very sad about my computer and pictures. We went back to the apartment and I had 20 minutes to completely pack and clean my room. It was the let thing that I wanted to do.. but I did it quickly, then did another quick look around the house, and went outside and showed my drawing to a few more neighbors. Started crying again when the tuk-tuk got there and my squad leader told me that if I wanted a new computer I needed to buy it today in Cambodia because it would be a lot more expensive in Africa… and there was around $80 in my account. I told them that wasn't possible and I would just figure it out later. Cried the whole tuk-tuk ride to the airport and did not want to talk to anyone.
As we pulled into the airport my team leader came running up and said 'God is good! They found MKs laptop!' I just stared at her in complete disbelief… (I had at that point almost given up hope.. at least for me getting it back soon. I mean, we were AT THE AIRPORT. But I planned to give the pastor my friends email address who will be in Cambodia all of next month, in case he found it somehow and could give it to her. But since we were at the airport leaving the country, I knew I wasn't going to have a computer in my hands for weeks at least.) The pastor and his wife drove 30 minutes to the airport and I waited outside for them… still saying I wouldn't believe they found it until he got there and put it in my hands. He said after we left his wife went back to the house to clean some more and lock up all of the bedrooms, and when she went in to my room the computer was sitting there in the middle of the floor! I just moved out of the room and swept it 30 minutes before… a completely empty room. Someone must have felt guilty after seeing how upset I was all day, but they were scared to give it back to me in person. They waited until right after the house was empty and miraculously it got back into my hands right before I left the country. When I turned it on, there were a few document and application screens up that had been moved around and resized, but nothing was missing or messed up. At the same time the rest of my squad was arriving at the airport and they heard that my computer was stolen, they were all saying 'MK I'm soo sorry for your loss! That sucks soo bad..' and I had to explain to them that I found it!
I have NO idea who took it, where it was, or how in the world it got back into that empty room after we left… but I do know that it is in my possession now, and that I am in the possession of an AMAZING God. It was returned at THE last minute. Many people were praying that the situation would be resolved, and within 15 hours it was. I know that I learned a few lessons from these situations. And I hope that whoever had the computer learned something as well. I know that God is working in their heart if they had the urge to return the computer when they could have easily kept it, especially once we were gone. God is the restorer and the provider. He is in control of every situation, and you never know whose heart He is working on, and how he uses these situations for the good. I'm in awe, and my level of faith is through the roof. All is well in His perfect timing. 'Above all, never give up hope.'
