A couple months earlier, this same little boy was brought to Erik on the sideline of a soccer game. He had a bad rash on his leg and needed a doctor. As Erik did a quick inspection of his leg on the sidelines, he noticed an oozing, infected rash that extended from his knee down. The rash was crusted over in places and was so bad that his shoe was actually stuck on his foot! His leg was swollen and he walked with a limp. My heart hurt for this sweet boy. Since it was Sunday, Erik asked him to go to the clinic the next day with a parent. The next day I happened to be at the hospital working on a project by the entrance when this boy and his mom walked in. I quickly called Erik and approached them. A nurse came out to translate for us because his mom did not speak any English and we learned that he had been suffering with this rash for a long time. His mom claimed they didn’t have any money and could not afford a clinic visit, which was $4.00, or medicine to treat it. I begged Erik to do what he could to help. Erik was able to get the boy into the clinic and get him the medicine he needed. I was so happy about it and I have often prayed for this boy’s healing. When I saw him outside my window, I was very interested to see how his leg was healing up.
I quickly slipped on a skirt, but before I could get outside, Skogen was in my room in tears. He explained that he was working at his desk in his room, which was in front of an open window. His watch had been sitting on his desk and accidentally fell out of the window! When he went outside to get his watch, the little boy, who had been peering in the windows, was twirling it around and around in his hands. Skogen asked for his watch back and the little boy put it in his pocket and shook his head ‘no.’ When I stepped outside, the little boy was standing at the edge of the long grass, about 50 feet from our house. I yelled to him, asking him to give us the watch back. As I walked toward him, though, he took off running through the tall grass toward Arizona, the little village nearby where he lives. We have been advised on many occasions not to go into Arizona, due to the other things, so I decided to let him go.
Skogen was very unhappy about this situation. He had never had anything stolen from him like this before and was saddened that one of the local kids, who was a potential friend, would do something like this. We reviewed our “family rules” that are hanging on our wall in the living room and prayed about the situation. I assured Skogen that we’d get him a new watch when we got back to the States and that it didn’t cost much at Walmart to get the exact same one. The next day, I could see this was weighing on everyone. The kids talked about it at the breakfast table, it was the topic of conversation among friends in the yard, and Klaasen prayed about it at dinner that evening. Previously, we had all associated stealing with bad guys and I knew the kids were having a hard time processing a friend stealing. I understood their feelings, but also had my own frustrations. This was the same little boy that we had taken pity on and bent over backwards to get him the medical care he needed to get well and now he was stealing from us. It just didn’t sit right with me.On Sunday we arrived at church and sat down in the wooden pew with a strategic seating arrangement to minimize distractions or interpersonal drama. First T, then Erik, Klaasen, me, Madia, and lastly Skogen. On the other side of Skogen there was a lady with her little girl who came in just behind us. I glanced at her face to see if I recognized her and then something caught my eye – she had Skogen’s watch on!!!
I couldn’t believe it! Skogen saw it before I did and was already in tears. I felt uneasy as I leaned over to tell Erik. Erik had Skogen double-triple make sure that it was his watch and then assured us we’d get it back somehow. I sat there in disbelief. How could this be? I glanced at the lady’s face a few more times and recognized her as the mother to the boy with the bad rash. I also recognized her, though, as the lady who had gone forward after church last Wednesday to be baptized.
Erik slipped a dollar bill in his shirt pocket during services and told me about his plan to confront her on the way out of church and offer to buy the watch back. My thoughts were all over the place. By asking for the watch back and maybe creating some awkwardness, I didn’t want to drive her away from church. I also wanted to make sure we were being good Christian examples for our kids, who were very emotionally involved in this situation. This whole ordeal was such a big deal that I knew it was something the kids would remember forever. I was angry and confused, but I was also sensitive to the fact that this woman doesn’t have as much as we do. We could afford another watch. She couldn’t. What was the right thing to do? My mind was spinning as I contemplated the options.
Toward the end of the service, Erik stood up and I saw him grab a member of the church, someone Erik and I really respect as a Godly, Christian man. They went into the preacher’s office together and I could only guess that Erik must have asked him what he should do. Erik came back and sat down and then one of the elders came and got the lady from the pew and asked her into the office. I felt nervous about what was taking place, but thankful that we didn’t have to be involved. Later we found out that the elders called her into the office, told her what had happened, and asked for the watch back. She gladly gave it to them and it was then returned to us after services.
As we walked home from church, I really thought this was the end of the stolen watch ordeal. I thought we had learned some good lessons and I was thankful that the elders helped us get it back. I was so proud of Skogen for holding it together during church when he had to sit for two gruesome hours, looking at his watch on someone else’s wrist. My proudest moment came on Tuesday, though.
Skogen, Klaasen, and Torsten were playing in the backyard in the sand and the little boy who stole the watch approached them. Maida saw him through the window and quickly warned me that he was there. Initially, when the watch was first taken, I had thought that if that little boy ever came over again, I would tell him that he was not allowed to play here because he stole something from us. Honestly, I thought he’d be too ashamed to ever show his face here again, though. A little surprised, I approached the boy and told him that we had gotten Skogen’s watch back. I also told him that we weren’t happy that he had stolen it from us and that he should tell Skogen that he was sorry. I was unsure if this boy even understood English, but he immediately turned and looked at Skogen and said, “I’m sorry.” When I first approached him, I had planned on asking him to go home, but now I saw that Skogen and Klaasen had already given him a tool to dig with them in the sand. So, with several little eyes on me, I looked at this little boy and simply just said that if he wanted to play here, he couldn’t steal our things. I asked him if he understood and he nodded he did. I said it again, “If you steal from us, I will ask you to go home the next time you come.” He nodded yes and then Klaasen invited him, “Hey, come dig with us!”
I was humbled and almost embarrassed at how my heart initially felt when I was so sure about asking him to leave. I was also so proud and honored to be the mom of such great boys, who had shown me what forgiveness looked like. Ironically about 30 minutes later, I went back outside, this time on the other side of the house to hang some laundry. Surprisingly, the little boy was in our garbage pit. I hesitated for a minute, knowing what he was doing – taking things out of the pit. It was garbage, though, and I shouldn’t care if someone took our garbage, right? On the other hand, though, I told him that he couldn’t steal from us and this was stealing. Before I could say anything, he got out of the pit, slowly walked up to me, held up his hand, and sheepishly gave me something that he had taken out of the pit. I thanked him for not taking it and in that moment I realized that this whole ordeal wasn’t just a learning experience for our kids, it wasn’t just a learning experience for me, but it was a learning experience for this boy, too.
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