Night terrors and crime-fighting bananas

Well, nobody at the Micah House got that much sleep last night. That's because the night before last, an intruder shimmied up the street lamp next to the house and got onto our second story terrace at 12:24 a.m. The unknown thief proceeded to spend almost an hour and a half moving around the Micah House, bundling up CDs, clothing and even a bicycle and sending them over the terrace wall to the street below. We know about this person's movements not because any of us encountered him...no, all 12 of us, including our dalmatian Cheetah, slept soundly as he moved from room to room pillaging our house.

We know what he did because our new system of security cameras has a playback feature. So...when we finally found the time on the surveillance tape that he carefully stepped from the lightpost over our razorwire and onto the patio, we were able to watch all of his movements on recorded tape. Unfortunately, since all the lights were turned out, the images on the tape were even more horrifying...he was just a shadow moving in and out of the light of the street lamp, with only an occasional detail, such as his stocking cap, coming into focus.

The brazenness of his crime was also horrifying. He went into a couple of our boys' bedrooms, removing things from their tables and placing them on the floor in search for valuables. When he brought his loot back to the terrace, he took his time in folding the clothes he had stolen into nice, neat bundles. These two facts tell me that he was probably armed, since he had no fear of any possible encounter. Because of this, I thank God that none of our boys did wake up and provoke a possibly violent encounter.

So...you can understand why we were all on edge as dusk moved towards nightfall last night, and we all faced the prospect of falling to sleep without the sense of safety and security that we usually took for granted. Reactions to the intrusion were mixed, depending on our boys' personalities. Wilmer and Cristofer decided to take matters into their own hands, having recently seen the movie "Home Alone". They gathered up about 20 banana peels and spread them over the terrace at the point that the thief entered, sure that, upon entering again, he would slip on a peel and suffer a massive head injury. For added measure, they spread a liquid detergent all over the terrace to make it as slippery as possible. I think they were actually disappointed this morning when no one broke in and they couldn't put their booby-trap to the test. (I've attached a picture taken this morning with Wilmer, Cristofer and their banana peels...with the offending light post in the background).

One of our other boys suffers from very real and frequent night terrors. You'd think that, with the trauma of our guys' past lives, that would be even more frequent than it is. Well, how do you explain away the bogey-man to a frightened boy when you've got lots of footage of him on candid camera? This one stayed close to me all evening long, not venturing very far way.

Before bed, I got all of the guys together for an evening devotional. I talked them through fear, letting them know that it was natural to be afraid, but that we, as Christians, have a greater hope. I shared Luke 12:4 "...do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more" and a good section of Romans 8: "If God is for us, who can be against us?" We reflected on the fact that, as Christians, while our bodies may face danger, our souls are locked away safe and sound, waiting for their entrance into God's eternal household. We ended our devotional time by singing a song in Spanish based on Psalm 121, which is all about the Lord's protection.

I think the guys felt better after our time of reflection and prayer. Even so, we left all the lights on in the house. When I went to check on the rooms, Jeferson was earnestly reading his Bible on his bottom bunk; it wasn't hard to discern the anxiety on his face.

So...though I dozed off and on, I pretty much stared at the surveillance monitor until 3:30 in the morning. Sometimes, it can be a heavy thing to have 12 young lives depending on you. I gave my own anxieties up to God whenever they floated their little tendrils of fear into my heart. I just kept remembering, in the words of Psalm 121 "He will not let your foot slip--he who watches over you will not slumber..."

We ask for your continued prayers for safety. In the last month, our cars have been broken into twice, once in front of the Micah House and once two blocks away, and now our house has been breeched. We appreciate your prayers for God's protection!

Su hermano en Cristo,

Michael