Written by:Kayle
9/25/2008 7:44 AM

  Tonight was probably our most thrilling night here in Zimbabwe by far, but not the type of thrill that is enjoyable.  We had pizza night with our small group where everyone brought a topping.  These pizzas were some of the best pizzas Mat had made to date.  We all just enjoyed chatting and laughing together.  The last couple left the house by 10:15pm and so Mat and I were just chilling after a long hot day.  We had the doors open still after our guests left to keep the cool air coming in and cooling off the hot house.  Mat was in the living room on the computer and I was in the office skyping a friend in the UK. 
    Around 11pm I hear the office door opening while I'm talking on skype.  I turn around to see two black men in our house telling me to get on the floor.  They tell me to get up and they take my wedding rings and ask me where our money is.  It was all quite surreal to say the least and I couldn't quite comprehend what was going on.  My friend on skype was saying, "Kayle, are you there?  Kayle?"  I told her, "Uhh...I'll call you back..."  The men said they had already seen my husband and child, which freaked me out since I didn't know if they had done anything to them.  I yelled out to check that Mat was ok and he said he was. 
   Apparently they broke out a piece of our cheap concrete wall that goes around the house and just waited on the back of our property until everyone went home.  Then they just walked in our open doors and got to Mat first.
   Not wanting to recall all the details in this blog as to scare anyone, the guys were in our house for over 75 minutes taking our laptops, wedding rings, some money, my jewelry (which was all cross necklaces!), cell phone, digital camera, etc.  Not just that, they took my tennis shoes, socks, cooking oil, 3 tubes of toothpaste, some food out of our deep freezer, etc.  These guys knew what they were doing as they would ask, "Where is the charger for this?"  Or "Does the CD drive work on this computer?"  They wanted things that were working for a quick sell and things that were broken, they left behind.  The cheap looking jewelry was left behind too.  Fortunately they left behind one laptop and our flashdrives, so we didn't really lose that much information.  Also, they didn't really rumage through Calvin's room or touch Calvin at all.  Calvin slept through the entire thing!
   While one of the guys rumaged through our stuff, the other guy watched us so that we wouldn't move.  We both had a heart to talk to him about the Lord.  I asked him if he knew Jesus, and he stuttered saying he did.  Then Mat prayed for him out loud: that the God who sees his situation would provide for him and his family, that God would show his grace and love to him and that this situation would ultimately be used for God's glory in his life.   
    After they left, we called the police and then called some friends, Ian and Jo, to see if Ian would come over and help us out.  Calvin woke up after they left and could tell that something was wrong with us.  I went to Jo's house and settled Calvin down to sleep there while waiting for Mat and Ian to come back after speaking with the police.  Loads of people came over afterwards: two neighbors, two "FBI" type of guys, a whole load of police officers and even police dogs!  Apparently these guys have been hitting up a lot of houses in our suburb over the last 3 weeks. 
    It was a long, sleepless, exhausting night!  But we were so thankful to God that we were unharmed.  We definitely sensed his calming presence during the robbery and his hand of protection over us.  We were also thankful that our friends really took us in and cared for us!  A thrilling night for sure, but one I never want to experience again!

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