Devastating Robery
In the early morning hours of Saturday, October 29th, cat burglars climbed up to our second-floor balcony, jimmied the door, and forced open the security gate, all without making enough noise to wake us or any of our neighbors! They came through the house, down the hallway past our open bedroom door to enter the study. They stole both of our Apple computers, our locked cash box with money for end-of-month expenses, went through Russ’ wallet and took all the cash, then went back through the living room and took our flat screen TV and our Canon EOS camera with telephoto lens. They packed things in two of our backpacks and escaped.
When Russ woke up and walked into the living room, he immediately noticed that the TV was missing. Then he saw that the security gate and door to the balcony was ajar and knew that we had been robbed. When he checked the study and found that both our computers were stolen as well as all the cash, he was absolutely devastated! We praise God that the thieves chose to spare our lives and rejoice that they did not steal our bankcards, passports, and other valuable or sentimental items. Though He allowed this burglary to take place, God was watching over our lives, for which we are so grateful!
The rest of the day was spent with the police, making a statement and a list of what was stolen, talking about possible suspects, etc. The police here are very slow and inefficient and have to be “facilitated” to do any follow-up investigation. It doesn’t look like there is much chance that we will get back anything that was stolen, though we are praying for a miracle.
Russ had not starting backing up his new computer yet and has therefore lost everything from May through October: financial records, a complicated file he was working on to submit to the Ugandan government, and the updated version of the database of churches we have visited and that get our prayer letter. Some of this information may be recoverable once he gets a new computer, but much information is permanently lost, which is very discouraging.
Now, it is vital that we replace the things that were stolen. We need new computers and backup hard drives. We cannot conduct our ministry entirely from our phones. There are a few Apple computer dealers here, but they have very limited stock of mostly the cheapest configurations. We will need to order a new computer for Russ, which will take two or three months to arrive. We also urgently need to install a security system in our apartment, which will cost $1,290.00, installed.
If you can help us recover from this devastating robbery, please send contributions in our names to the BBFI Mission Office marked “Robbery Recovery.” And please keep us in your prayers. Thank you so much!
Yours in Uganda,
Russ & Sylvia DanielsEmail: rsdaniels.uganda@gmail.com
