Tuesday, July 21, 2009

You Won't Believe The Day I Had Yesterday!!!

Remember how I said yesterday morning that it would be a really busy day at Skipstone? Yeah well, turns out I had no idea what the day would hold. I think God does that for us every now and then just to give us a quick reminder of who is in control!

On top of our normal Monday chaos, we discovered a major problem with the Ugandan boys airline tickets when we called to check them in for their flight home. After two hours on the phone, Shondi and Melinda (from Pennies for Posho ministry) drove to the airport and spend the rest of the day persuading KLM that the problem with the tickets was an honest mistake that resulted from bad communication in the KLM office in Uganda (which is the size of my office)and the rest of the KLM world. Just think about the worst airline agent you ever encountered.... this agent trained all of those!:)

In the end, the ticket situation was resolved at 2:30pm and the boys were due at the airport no later than 3:30 pm to catch their flight home. So while Shondi and Melinda waited at the airport, our staff loaded up all of the boys luggage in the two vans and we gathered everybody together to say "goodbye". As we are standing there enduring our tearful goodbyes, it comes to someone's attention that Joseph, one of the 13 year old Ugandan boys, is nowhere to be found! We were already running late, so we had everyone on campus start looking for him immediately. I kept the vans running, confident that he would be found in a few minutes and we'd be on our way.

Ninety minutes later, or about the time the plane was taking off, there was still no sign of Joseph. We were beginning to grow very concerned, so per our protocol, we contacted the Spalding County Sheriff's Office. Needless to say, things got very crazy in a matter of a few minutes. Dozens of marked and unmarked police cars, search and rescue vehicles, dive teams, neighbors and other volunteers, and all of our campers coming in to register for the the last week of camp converged at Skipstone entrance. It was an incredible sight.... I can only imagine what people driving by were thinking, and especially what the parents of our "new" overnight campers were thinking!

The search continued for Joseph all over our 64 acre campus, as well as the 190 acre tract south of our property, the 18 acre tract east of us, and the 300 acre tract west of us. A police chopper from Fayette County was called in to assist the people on the ground. It was absolutely an insane scene! I spent the whole time at the command center at the front gate, trying to keep tabs on all that was going on and giving the officers as much information about the property layout as I could. To say that I was worried would be an understatement, but I also had a peace that God knew exactly what was going on and that while it looked like everything was out of control, HE was still very much in control.

At 6:24pm, over six hours since anyone had seen "big Joe", Ken Brown, one of our Skipstone Academy parents, and John Plageman, one of our board members who also volunteers for the dive and resue team, found Joseph hidden in a heavy brush thicket on the very back corner of the property. HE was unharmed, but was terrified and shaking. Since he doesn't understand our culture, he had no idea what kind of havoc his behavior had caused until he rounded the corner and saw the dozens of searchers who had been frantically looking for him for more than four hours.

Without going into all of the details, it turns out that one the ladies, who was here from Uganda and was touring with the boys for the first part of the tour, had given Joseph some very specific instructions about some costume items that belonged to her that the boys were using for the remainder of the tour. They were goat skins that were used in a dance routine and apparently they were of great value to the "mum". She charged Joseph with caring for those skins and making sure they got back to Ugandan to her or he would face a severe beating(I realize that is shocking to hear, but unfortunately this is acceptable in their culture). Upon returning from their concerts in North Carolina two weekends ago, the group realized that the skins were missing. Melinda called the churches to find out if they were accidentally left there but no one has found them as of yet. The thought of going back to Uganda and facing the "mum" without her possessions was more than this little boy could stand and he did the only thing he knew to do...hide.

Since every leader is a learner, Shondi and I stayed up late considering what we could learn from this whole ordeal. While there are many lessons, the two things that stuck out in our hearts were:
1. Nothing good can possibly good from placing too much value on our "stuff" whether it's parked in my garage at Skipstone or riding around on the back of a goat in Uganda. Stuff is still stuff. The moment we start to take our focus off of God and put it on our stuff, trouble always ensues.
2. Whether you are a 13 year old Ugandan boy or almost 40 year old ministry leader, fear paralyzes your life, your walk and your ministry. The four and a half hours we worried, fretted, panicked, prayed while Joseph sat in a thicket also worrying, fretting, panicking, and praying, God sat confidently on His throne in complete control. Just like Joseph's fear kept him in hiding all afternoon, our fear does the same thing to us. We hide from friendships, new experiences, amazing life lessons and God's purpose for our lives all out of fear. We might not be in a thicket of bushes in the woods but our hiding place is just as uncomfortable. One of my favorite sayings goes like this... "When fear knocks, let faith open the door and no one will be there." Faith that God can handle any struggle you are facing makes truly abundant life possible...we just have to take the first step and get out of the thicket!

Looking back on what seemed yesterday to be a very discouraging day, we see God's hand in every little detail. Joseph never left the Skipstone property and he was always safe. God sent an army of amazing people to help us look for Joseph (and we cannot adequately begin to express our appreciation). The lessons that God taught us through the ordeal will remain with us forever as will the memories that we have made with these eight incredible boys this summer.

Thank you for your prayers and thank you to those who physically helped in our search. The next available flight for the boys is next Monday at 4:00...please pray that their departure then will go smoothly and that God will continue to work in the lives of the Ugandan Thunder!

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