Answered prayer

I feel like since I've had so many people telling me they're praying about my missing camera, I need to fill you in on what's happened in the past several days. Let me just tell you that we serve a truly amazing God!

Evidently, while we were on the plane from Detroit to Amsterdam, my camera (which I received on Jan. 2) fell out of my bag and I left the plane without it. As we sat on the plane from Amsterdam to Uganda about 1 1/2 hours later, I thought, "I need to get some pictures of all the water and windmills here..." and started to search for my camera. It began to dawn on me that I hadn't seen my camera since the last plane. I took everything out of my purse, and then searched through my overstuffed backpack, but couldn't find the camera. I was sick, just knowing that I was literally leaving my brand-new camera in a country I wouldn't be going back to for almost 2 years. But at this point, there was nothing I could do. When I got the flight attendant's attention, I explained to her that I thought I had left my camera on the last plane, hoping she could get a message to someone at the last plane, but she told me to get in touch with the Amsterdam airport when we arrived in Uganda. Thanks for the help.

We arrived at the Guest House in Kampala late Sunday night, and had many errands to run on Monday. Pam, my supervisor's wife, called the airline in Kampala Monday morning and got the number for KLM in Amsterdam, with instructions not to call before 4:30 that afternoon. So that afternoon, I spent 15 or 20 minutes on my new cell phone calling Amsterdam, where I was eventually directed to the airport Lost & Found website. Late that night, I was finally able to fill out the online "lost item claim form". In all honesty, I knew the chances of someone honest actually finding my camera and turning it in were slim to none, but hey, it was worth a shot.

Tuesday morning, I received an email from Lost & Found asking for more information about the camera. I responded, giving as much information about the camera as I could. That afternoon I received another email informing me that they had found my camera, and that I (or my representative) could it pick up in the baggage area of the airport, or that I could have it mailed or couriered to me (which would cost $90- $250, before any taxes and customs fees). What to do?

Pam had a brainstorm. She has several friends from Holland who live or lived in Arua, my new town here in northwest Uganda. One of her friends left before Christmas to go to a funeral in Holland, and she wasn't sure if she had already returned to Arua, or if she would be returning soon. So she started emailing and texting friends Tuesday night to find out how to get in touch with them. Before too long, we got an email from this friend's husband, Aart, saying that they were flying out of Amsterdam in the morning at 11:00, and that they would try to pick up the camera, if we would give them the details on how to get it. We started frantically emailing the airport and Aart to make sure everyone knew who would be picking the camera up and how. My camera will arrive here in Arua sometime on Thursday.

Can I just tell you that God is a God of the details? We serve a God who is so big that He sees the whole world at one time, and yet is intimately personal. He is small enough to see a little camera under an airplane seat in Amsterdam. He orchestrated the right honest person to find the camera and turn it in to Lost & Found, He somehow enabled me to communicate well enough with Dutch employees in Amsterdam to be able to access the website from Uganda. And He placed people from the same teeny, tiny town that most people have never heard of to be traveling through the airport on the exact day that my camera was available. I know that in the big scheme of things, this is a tiny thing. But it is a thing. And it is an important thing to me. It is a way to share my work with family and friends at home and around the world. It is a way to involve others in the Lord is doing here in Arua. And, because He loves me, and I am important to Him, this thing that is important to me is important to Him. He is a good Father. How many lessons has He taught me through this one little camera????