The Chase Is On!

Life is never dull here in Burkina. However, this weekend we had something very interesting happen. Let me start with a little background information. Three weeks ago we had someone come to the church and steal the electrical wiring that was buried between the church building and the toilet on the back side of the property. It wasn’t much, but it cost about $50 to replace it. Last Saturday, our electrician came and reinstalled everything.

Once a month, we have a church wide visitation to hand out flyers and invite people to come. There were seven of us this week that left the church Saturday morning to make visits. When we returned about noon, one of the guys saw someone on our property. Yes - the thief had already returned to steal the cable again. My friend jumped out of the car yelling “thief”…“thief”. Two others followed suit and the chase was on. Laope and I started the pursuit in the car. (In case you have forgotten my physique, let’s just say I’m not the fastest runner in the world.) We made quite a commotion as we were off-roading through a field to try to cut him off. Although he outran the guys, he quickly learned that he was no match for the Nissan.

We have several thieves here in Burkina. However, they live a dangerous life-style. If they are caught, a mob usually takes the law into its own hands. He is taught a valuable lesson at the expense of several bruises. A mob quickly assembled Saturday. However, we told them that it was not our goal to hurt him. We preferred to deal with the situation by talking with his family. Even after we put this reluctant 17 year old in the car, one gentleman said to leave him and they would be happy to take care of it for us.

I’m thankful to say that everything was handled in a Godly manner that I feel God will bless. I’m also thankful that we drove up before he had the opportunity to tear anything up. One interesting note is that Wednesday evening one of our members asked for prayer that the thief would be caught. Apparently, he had been hitting several homes in the area. Who would have thought that God would answer her request in such a fashion?