BE NOT WISE IN THINE OWN EYES. FEAR THE LORD AND DEPART FROM EVIL.
(PROVERBS 3:7)


Thursday, February 19, 2009

The Drama of our Laptop

On our way to Red Knight Gardens in Davao City, where we rented two apartments for the whole family, Isabelle was sleeping in the taxi. It was 11 at night. As soon as the taxi stopped at the gate of our apartment, I said, "Honey, would you help Joy (my adopted sister) carry Izzy to our room? Be careful, so you won't wake her up." And he did. We were so worn-out from all of our activities that day and from Grace's Wedding Reception that Paul couldn't wait to hit the bed. I was still up talking to my siblings. After sleeping for 30 minutes, Paul got up and announced that he left the bag with my laptop in the taxi. We were shocked! We did all our best to recall the name of the taxi but we couldn't. It was very important that we recover that laptop because it's got our personal information that could be used by others on our behalf. Clif thought of the guard house in the entrance of the subdivision where Red Knight Gardens is located. Dan didn't waste time, he drove to the guard house and the security guard on duty gave him the name of the taxi and it's number. Later, he also gave the name of the taxi driver. The next hour was spent on making calls to the office of the taxi company, 911 and the police headquarters. The taxi company refused to give the contact info's of the said taxi driver for reasons he won't disclose. We were so desperate to get our laptop back before the one who got it open it and uses our credit card info's. We called our bank and requested to put our credit card on hold. Dan and Nemrod drove far to personally talk to the person on duty in the taxi company office that night but didn't get any more info's about the driver. When they got home, we were so hopeless! The impossibility to get our computer back just got more real. A month before our trip to the Philippines, Dan was telling me how people in the Philippines have become so desperate to survive in a very depressed economy that thieves and robbers were everywhere. He warned us to make extra effort to protect our moneys, credit cards, passports and other important belongings on our trip. In fact, a thief broke into my parents' house a few months ago. With that in mind, I was just very hopeless that our laptop would be recovered. We had the name of the taxi and the driver but to try to trace him could take weeks. That's just how system in the Philippines work. Our final effort was to gather in the living room and prayed. Every one, except the kids who were soundly sleeping, was praying. After lots of prayers and Paul promising to give all the cash he had that night to the driver if he came back with our lappy in the morning, we all slept like a baby. Around 5 am, my mom heard a hard knock on our gate. She got up and opened the gate and lo and behold, she saw a taxi driver with a bag in his hand. He came back with our laptop! Mama woke us all up to announce the great news! We got our lappy back! The driver said that he was driving home very far from where we were and found out about the bag. He said he couldn't sleep that night at home and that he felt really convicted to look for us and return the bag, so he drove back to us very early in the morning. Every one was full of joy! Paul gave him all the cash he had and the driver felt very appreciated for his integrity. What a story of God's faithfulness to answer our prayers! That's just the God we serve and love! And oh, when we left for Tandag, we left the power cord of that laptop somewhere in Davao. We couldn't trace where we left it and thought it was lost. We bought a new power cord for it. But when we went back to Red Knight Gardens, they said they had our power cord and gave it to us. We called them before to ask if they had it but they said, "no". It's crazy... but yes, that's the drama of our laptop! We cleaned that lappy and gave it to Dan.

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