{"id":7,"date":"2007-08-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-12T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2007-08-12T03:23:44","modified_gmt":"2007-08-12T07:23:44","slug":"he-gives-and-takes-away-blessed-be-the-name-of-the-lord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/aaron-knapp\/2007\/08\/12\/he-gives-and-takes-away-blessed-be-the-name-of-the-lord\/","title":{"rendered":"He gives and takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On our sixth day in Mexico, we went to Walmart to do some shopping for household supplies.  After a long trip through the store, trying to find everything we needed without being able to read the labels, we finally felt like we had everything we needed for the time being, and we walked out the door.  As we were walking out to the truck, we realized that there was no truck there to walk to.  We were in shock.  We searched every aisle, even though we both remembered exactly where we had parked.  Our truck was nowhere to be found.<\/p>\n

We stood in the middle of the parking lot for quite some time, looking like the out-of-place-gringos that we are, until finally we realized that no matter how long we stood there, our truck was not coming back.<\/p>\n

As we walked back to the Walmart entryway, we realized that we had a big, BIG problem.  We had all of our legal paperwork in that truck.  Passports, social security cards, birth certificates, marriage certificate… you name it.  The list goes on and on.  In addition, we had somewhere between $1200 and $1400 worth of personal items in the truck at the time.  And to make matters worse, we didn’t speak Spanish, and we didn’t know what a person is supposed to do about a stolen vehicle in Mexico.  You can’t call 911.  That is a stateside emergency number. <\/p>\n

What would you do in a situation like that?  I cried.  When you cry in a public place, some little grandmother or lifelong boyscout is bound to feel sorry for you and try to help, which is what happened.  Soon we had a very kind Mexican man, who spoke a bit of English, trying desperately to understand what we were muttering in Spanglish.  We also had a couple of little grandmothers who didn’t help much with the truck process, but I appreciated their hugs! <\/p>\n

Somehow, the story (or some version of it) was passed on to the store security and then to the police.  When the police arrived, we were informed that no report could be written up at the time because we did not have in hand the papers that were stolen with the truck.  We needed those papers to report a stolen vehicle.  We also found out that a truck just like ours had crashed like a block or two away, but it fled the scene of the accident.  We are pretty confident it really was our truck.  You don’t see a lot of F350 crew cabs down here.  Especially with huge canopies.<\/p>\n

The day before, Aaron and another new missionary (Dan Alkire) had just purchased their Mexican cell phones and exchanged numbers with each other.  Because of that, we had a contact to call.  However, Dan’s phone had been beeping at him since the night before because of low battery, so he turned it off overnight, and had only just turned it back on that morning.  We called him, and told him what happened, and that we needed him to call someone who could help us.  He did call someone, and within a couple minutes after he got the necessary info out, the phone went dead.  It should not have lasted as long as it did, but God knew.<\/p>\n

The missionary in charge of contingency came to pick us up, and immediately began explaining how things do and do not work down here in situations like this.  Listening to someone who knew what he was talking about was extremely refreshing.  He and Aaron dropped me and the boys off at home and then left to immediately begin the reporting process.  This has proven to be a very long process.  Anyway, I went and sat on our stairs and talked to God a bit about what I thought He might want to consider.  After that, I thanked Him that our truck got stolen.  I have learned in my life that there is nothing that I cannot thank God for.  He allows everything that comes into my life, and He works it all toward my good.  Why shouldn’t I thank Him for something that I know is eventually going to work out for my good?  So I did thank Him.<\/p>\n

I was glad that I at least had some floor cleaner that I had just purchased at Walmart.  Cleaning could take my mind off of things.  But when I went to read the dilution instructions, I was able to use my very limited Spanish to decode the label enough to realize that I had bought the wrong product.  In spite of the fact that I had a long "conversation" (if you could call it that …it involved a lot of hand gestures and guessing) with a Walmart worker regarding what kind of cleaner I needed for my tile floor, I had accidentally purchased wax remover.  Our floor doesn’t have wax, nor does it need any.  Bummer.  But at least I have a shower curtain rod now!  Oh wait.  The shower rod is too short, and won’t stay up.  Well, at least I can bleach the drains.  Oh wait.  I forgot to buy bleach.  Even the mirror we bought got broken by Landon.  It was a pretty unsuccessful shopping trip even without the truck incident!<\/p>\n

I cannot describe what a creepy feeling it was when we realized that our passports and visas were in the truck.  We now technically looked like illegal immigrants to Mexico, because our paperwork was gone.  And it also would have been illegal to go back home to the States.  SO we were pretty much stuck.  Aaron still had his license, but I had ZERO evidence of who I am.  It really was a strange feeling.<\/p>\n

It has been well over a month since our truck was stolen, and it still has not been recovered.  It is probably out in the mountains somewhere, so perhaps my parents will see it sometime.<\/p>\n

Ten years ago, Mexican car insurance did not have theft protection.  We were blessed to have this happen when theft is covered.  We have incurred plenty of expenses (due to that theft) which are not covered, but all in all we think it could have been much worse.  Aaron had just unloaded almost all of our belongings the night before the truck was stolen.<\/p>\n

There are so many ways that we have seen God working this out for His good and our good:  We have learned to trust Him in a whole new way.  We have been reminded to trust the Giver, and not the gifts.  We have been blessed by the kindness extended to us both by people back home in the US helping us recover from the loss, and by people here (especially our friend Chuy).  Aaron has found his way around town.  And he has made a friend (Chuy).  Aaron is way ahead in his culture investigation work because of all this!<\/p>\n

Also, I have had the incredible priviledge of watching my godly husband respond to these challenging circumstances with grace, and with unshakable hope.  How could I not thank God for that?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How can we thank God for allowing our truck to be stolen? Was our truck ever recovered? Read the full story to find out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/aaron-knapp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/aaron-knapp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/aaron-knapp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/aaron-knapp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/aaron-knapp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/aaron-knapp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/aaron-knapp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/aaron-knapp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}