Yikes!

We had a little excitement about 1 a.m.    I woke up because Elder Bullock's phone was getting a text message - and another one - and another one.   I found the phone and it was an automatic message from our security company that a guard had pressed the panic button (silent alarm) a few times.  I woke up Jim and we looked out our bedroom window and I saw 4 guys.  Jim saw one with a crowbar and he immediately hit the panic button that we have beside our bed and it set off the siren on top of our house.  The thieves immediately ran away.  Thank goodness for our alarm system.  

We then waited for the security company to show up and didn't see them.  They were here fairly quickly though but did a check around the outside wall first and found a hole through the brick wall that the thieves had made.  The alarm company answers an alarm with 6 or 8 very well trained security men.  The thieves also had cut the razor wire that is along the top of the wall and had likely done that to climb over and work on making the hole from both sides.   They did steal 1 jerry can of diesel and one empty can and also 3 lawn chairs.  That is really all there was outside to steal.  We are grateful for the alarm system or they would most likely have broken into the house as well.  We also called the police and two of them came.

The night guard saw them and pressed his silent alarm that he wears around his neck.  They saw him and he ran out the gate to try and get some help from a guard up the street.  A thief with a gun then stayed at the gate and our guard waited for the security to warn them that he was there.  The company really didn't need warning though as they are trained to deal with whatever they come across.   

We are just fine.  We just didn't sleep much after all that.  We went with our guard to make a report at the police station this morning.  They wanted to come and see the crime scene but had no transport and wanted to know if we could give them a ride here and back.  Elder Bullock ask if they were going to pay for the diesel and they thought that was pretty funny!!   They were CID officers (criminal investigation dept). 

The head guy for our security co. came this morning also to check things out and got a report.  He suggests putting 3 floodlights in to light up the BIG dark yard that we have here.  We just met with the landlady and she will pay for that so we will have it done tomorrow.  Her man will repair the hole in the wall today and next week they will plaster (stucco) the bricks and that supposedly makes it a little harder to break through.  She is really good about wanting to help us.  She doesn't want us to leave here but we may have to if it happens again.

Apparently crime is up here and we heard that it is also worse in Harare, Zimbabwe now too.  We will also have a second security guard here during the night time.  With these measures things should be okay.   The problem with this place is that it is a single house on a big plot and no one has built on the plots on either side of us yet and at the bottom of the plot is a pathway along a stream.   We are rather vulnerable.

We are just so grateful for the security system that has saved us.  Things could have been much worse if they had gotten into the house.   No one was hurt.

The place that we came across in Lilongwe that we want to rent for a couple will be much better than this one as far as security goes.  It is in a compound with 4 units so they won't be isolated by themselves.  We don't want to scare anyone from coming to serve here in Malawi.  The church also does all it can to keep we missionaries safe.  We couldn't look inside the flat because someone rented all 4 of them until January but we left our name and will try and get one then.  They are new flats and look like a really good possibility.

We are totally fine.  The Lord continues to watch over us, thanks to the prayers of our family and frineds.     Love,  Sister Bullock