Jails and Jesus: a long story of a crazy couple days

In June, we returned from a trip to a Serge meeting and to support Scott's mom, to find our house had been broken into by someone hack-sawing through barred windows. Being our 4th recent violent incursion, we felt the vulnerability of being a target, and the weary grief of things taken, and the intrusive exposure of finding drawers and shelves rifled through and tossed to the floor . . . but also the sobering reality that theft is part of daily life for the average family in this place, and we have way more margin than most other people to rebound from loss. Plus, we are thankful no one has been home, been hurt, when these things have happened. We keep our money in a safe, we travel with our laptop computers and phones, and the metal doors are double locked with deadbolts so a window thief can only extract through the small hole he cuts, limiting the damage. Nevertheless, amongst a number of smaller personal items taken, this time the most sad loss was Scott's camera.

Scott is an amateur photographer, it's his art and his service to provide really nice photos for our organisation and our family over the years. To limit mold that damages lenses in this jungle, he had NOT put his camera in the small safe, and to be able to have only carry-ons and move easily, we had not brought it with us that time. It was a very, very sad loss.

Weeks went by, he designed reinforcing extra bars to repair the damaged window, added stronger bolts to shutters. He resigned himself to not being able to buy a new camera, since this one was quite expensive. We didn't initially report to the police, because we figured the trail was long gone cold since it happened when we were away. Just chalked it all up to the cost of living. 

Psalms on trucks today, a needed reminder of God's story

Then out of the blue, we got contacted by someone who knows someone who knows us . . . one of those chains that remind you why it's actually good to live in community, to know and be known. People in Nyahuka noticed a young man using a camera that looked expensive, that he was possibly trying to sell. . . and that someone had seen pictures of US on the camera's memory. Scott confirmed that the model and make was the same as his. We got lots of advice, were told we should bring the police to question the young man with the camera (if you want police action in Uganda, you have to provide the transport to enable them to move), so Scott went to the police station to make a report and was assigned two policemen, one with a weapon. Meanwhile the helpful friends in town kept sending messages about where to find the young man with the camera, as Scott and his police escorts wound their way through the crowded town in the truck, and tried to stay out of sight. 

Suddenly the news was that the young man had boarded a boda (motorcycle taxi) and left towards Bundibugyo town! The police told Scott to drive fast! They were told it was a boda that was smoking as it went, so maybe they could catch it. He sped up the road blowing his horn, past the mission, past the next group of homes, church, school, until they saw the smoking motorcyle and pulled dramatically in front to make him stop. The police men jumped out of our truck and grabbed the passenger with his two backpacks. The driver looked bewildered. 

Once the police had the young man in the car, Scott asked "Do you have my camera?" and then he knew. They drove back to the police station and took down the full story. The young man with the camera had bought it from a kid who used to play at our house, grew up with our kids, a kid we know well, one we have helped a hundred times, one whose family we see weekly if not daily, one who worked for us as a yard worker for a while, who used to take care of our dogs. One who has stolen before from others. Sadly, our thief.. . . who must have held the camera for a month or more, then approached this young man who does a YouTube "Nyahuka TV" program, with the story that the camera had been a gift from us that he now wanted to sell.

Doubly sad to be someone we know, but made sense too. He would know what we had, how to find it, how to cut bars without alarming the dog. And the young man arrested bought the camera believing the thief's story that Scott had given it to him. 

Once someone is arrested though, with stolen goods in his hands, the police are not ready to let him walk just because his story makes sense . . they needed the actual thief to be found. So they locked him up in a cell (a wooden shed INSIDE the brick police building) and told his family to find the thief and bring him in to corroborate the story. Which led to an overnight parade of distress as the thief's family and the arrested kid's family tried to find the thief, various people came to our house crying, the thief's family broke into his bedroom when he didn't come home and found various smaller items of ours to return thus confirming the story the arrested kid was telling . . and by midday today we agreed that we had the wrong person in custody, and that the thief was indefinitely AWOL. 

So back to the police station, to pay some fines, to finish our statements, to withdraw charges against the arrested kid, to get him released, to receive our camera back, and to walk away from asking for more. We don't want anyone to risk serious harm over a camera . . we do want some consequences for this repeated thief to change his ways. We actually drove the arrested kid and his brother home, and ended up on friendly terms as we helped him a bit, realising he was deceived as we were.( While we were getting him released, the other woman in the station with a case said that she wanted to thank Dr.  Scott because when her husband died leaving her with three children, we helped her buy tin roofing sheets for her house, nothing we remember but the weaving of community happens over years and comes back unexpectedly to remind us of what it means to share burdens).

    

Those are the two jail cells, no light, no access

Scott dutifully following all the police procedures to get the arrested young man released

We see God's mercy in getting the camera back, and in finding out the truth. We pray God's mercy will extend to the thief actually repenting, and being willing to do some work we design to help his family rather than hurting everyone by his stealing. And to be the second kid that grew up close to us and stole significant amounts from us this year (the other being our former accountant) adds to the heaviness. We believe we are slowly labouring for good to grow. But the harvest is hidden. Is slow. 

We serve a God of mercy and truth. Both. We've chosen to forgive, to not press charges, to not land people in prison, to protect them from the worst . . but we've also tried to call out wrong, to bring it to the light, to set these young people on a path that leads to life. 

Sometimes a weekend involves a high speed chase for stolen goods, multiple visits to a jail, and yet leaving all the endings in the hands of Jesus.