March Forth! Marssige Edasi!

We are okay, and I need to start by saying this! I'll say it again -- we are all okay! Really!

But we came home last night to find that our house had been burglarized. They forced open a downstairs window and went through the entire house. Mostly they took electronic items (computer equipment, video games, etc.).

We are fortunate in that the immediate difficulty was in deciding who to call first! (Well, FIRST we called our Regional Commander, Major Tyrrell, of course!) What I mean is, we have a very good support network here in Tartu! We ended up having Leho Paldre, pastor of Kolgata Baptist Church, come and help us talk to the police (after having some missionary friends call for us, as our untranslated attempt just did not communicate).

We had come home after 9 at night very tired from a very long weekend with lots of driving. We first went to the Tallinn Kopli Corps picnic. Then to Camp Loksa to spend the night. Then to the Narva Corps, where I preached. Then to a meeting at Regional Headquarters in Tallinn.

Part of my scripture in Narva was:
"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:4,6-7)

My theme was Prayer (Requests) + Thanksgiving (Rejoicing) = PEACE!

In my better moments, I can joke that we were wondering how to get sinners into the Tartu Corps, and now THEY HAVE COME! ;-)

And I do get a bit of a chuckle imagining that we must have been doing something to step on the devil's tail, so he had to give a big YELP!

I feel like we have been initiated into some kind of missionary club. Now we know how it feels to go through this experience.

So maybe we'll get a dog. Or find someone to stay here while we are away (which is often). Maybe we'll have to put an alarm in.

We are grateful for a lot of things. We had our passports with us. Many of the things which are most precious to us are things no one would want to steal: Elizabeth's sticker book, my books, etc.

There are expensive things that they didn't take: our down comforters (which we were quite grateful for since the house had been open and was FREEZING cold), Chris's bike, our video camera.

So, friends, please pray for us. E-mail us. But do NOT worry about us!

Evelyn