Sleepless God

I have debated in my mind and heart for the last few days about whether or not I should blog about an event that happened to Sarah my new roommate and I this week. I don’t want you to worry or think that I am in danger all the time here because I’m not. And after the way my mom responded on the phone, I figured that it would be OK to tell you about it. (By this I mean that she didn’t freak out : )) Mostly I want to give witness to the God’s goodness and faithfulness. I want to tell you because His presence was so evident. So here we go…

First, a little background info:

The house that Esther, Sarah, and I live in is located between a hotel and the youth center where we all work. About a month ago, some guys were seen climbing into our compound in the middle of the night, getting our ladder, and using it to climb into the hotel compound to steal from the hotel guests. After this happened, we locked the ladder in one of the side rooms.

On Tuesday night, I went to bed at 10:00pm as usual and fell right to sleep. Our house is designed in a “U-shape” with a courtyard in the middle. There is a main part of the house with a living room, kitchen, and Esther’s bedroom. But for Sarah and I to get to our bedrooms we have to go outside. At about 2:30am, I was awoken to the sound of people yelling. Because it is so close, it can sometimes sound like the people who are staying at the hotel are talking right in our compound, but it is just the way the sound carries.

But on this night, it was too close to be in the next door compound. A few seconds after hearing the shouting, someone started firing a gun…five or six times. By this time I was out of my bed, standing by the door, and asking God to protect us. After a few seconds the shooting stopped, I heard someone talking and I recognized the voice of our guard from the youth center, Aragawi. I opened my door and stepped outside. I quickly noticed that the lights in the main part of the house were on and the door was hanging wide open. To my horror and my own stupidity, I saw my keys hanging in the door. I’ve never done this before, but I left my keys in my bedroom door.

I went inside, looked around, thinking that Sarah was already in the house and that she had turned the lights on. But it didn’t take long to realize that we had been robbed: two cameras, one cell phone, and the money that was in my wallet, 100 birr…the equivalent of about 8 dollars.  When the thieves came through our compound to go to the Africa Hotel, I think they saw the keys in my door, and took the opportunity to take what they could.

By this point, I was quite shaken. Sarah had come out of her room and we were both talking about what in the world had just happened. Then I heard Aragawi’s voice. He said, “Lydia, it’s Aragawi.” Nearly in tears, I went to the gate to unlock it for him. He came in and gave me a big hug and kept saying “Chigareeyellin, Chigareeyellin,” which means “no problem.” Then I told him that our things had been stolen. I found out later that when he fired his AK47, it was to alert the police in the area. So he wasn’t firing at the thieves, only into the air.

I called our team leader, Jon, and he immediately came to our house. It wasn’t long before there were about ten men with AK47’s standing in our compound talking about what happened, and trying to figure out how the thieves got away. Just as a side note, Sarah and I found things to laugh at even in the midst of this, which I am thankful for. For example…I always wear shorts to bed. Sarah said the reason she thought that there were so many men in our compound wasn’t to investigate, but because they wanted to see my white legs. We laughed, but after she said I was watching all these men to see if they were looking at me. They weren’t : ).

By about 4:00 am, the police had taken their reports and everyone left our house. I went back to bed and turned my Ipod on in hopes that the music would help me calm down and fall to sleep. The song that came on was from Psalm 121:

I lift up my eyes to the hills–where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip–He who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, He who watches Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you–the Lord is the shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm–He will watch over your life, the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and  forevermore.

The God who never slumbers or sleeps. The moon will not harm you by night. He will watch over your life. As a I was reminded of these incredible truths, I was just overcome by the goodness and faithfulness of God. Praise God that even when we sleep, He is continually active and moving, always watching His children. Praise God that even in my stupidity (leaving my keys in the door) that He keeps us from all harm. Praise God for men like Aragawi, our guard and my new hero, who willingly risk their lives to protect us. Praise God that Esther went home to England for 2 weeks the day before the break-in, and that she wasn’t in her room because the thieves went into her room to steal her camera. Praise God that the thieves didn’t take our computers…which were sitting right out in the open and only a foot away from the cell phone that they took. Praise God for the incredible sense of peace that He has given to Sarah and I in the days following the break-in. How grateful we would be if you prayed for our continued safety and praise God with us for His watchful eye and for being our sleepless God.