In April one of our Sheds of HOPE transport trailers, FBT-03, was taken. The mission-critical trailer was taken from a church parking lot where it was double locked and had a GPS tracker installed. Besides supporting first responders during every response since the Baton Rouge floods of 2018, the trailer recently saw extended service in the rugged mountains of Western North Carolina and Northeast Tennessee during our historic Hurricane Helene response. The tracker reported the day before the trailer went missing, and then never again. The theft was reported and logged into the national  crime database. 

I admit, I have really been struggling with the theft. God makes it plain, “You shall not steal”. It is always wrong. However, God does provide guidance for those who have been wronged in what their posture should be. Proverbs 6:30 says that we should not despise a thief that is desperately hungry, cant afford food, and steals to feed his family. We know the stories of Robin Hood and Jean Valjean. We typically don’t despise those type of guys or their particular brand of thievery! And what about Augustine? In his Confessions he tells the story of he and his friends stealing a bunch of pears from a neighbor’s tree. He admitted, emphatically, that they weren’t hungry or even wanted the pears, “My desire was to enjoy not what I sought by stealing but merely the excitement of thieving and the doing of what was wrong.” Some people just steal for the sinfulness of it. Admittedly, I don’t know why someone stole the trailer, maybe they really were in a tight spot and needed such a trailer to meet an obligation. 

Although you provided the funds that purchased this trailer, the money was actually God’s money entrusted to you. You entrusted it to me and MNA Disaster Response for the purpose of blessing others. And we did; staff and volunteers using that trailer blessed hundreds, and hundreds more. We did a really good job taking care of that trailer, keeping it in tip-top shape, and protecting it from theft, but obviously not good enough. I am sorry that it was stolen, I’m sorry for the loss to our collective ministry.

The theft reminds me that our work can easily be disrupted, Kingdom work isn’t immune from external forces seeking to upend the work. Because our work is focused on helping others it’s easy to think that it’s not subject to bad actors. But possessing a posture of fear and a general sense of mistrust and cynicism towards others isn’t the way forward, if we do that we will eventually become paralyzed and give up. Bad stuff, unfortunately, is happening everywhere, everyday, and will continue until we see Jesus face-to-face in the new heavens and new earth. I am reminding myself that if we are serving God for immediate results, thinking everything is going to be easy and fun, we are going to be very disappointed if and when circumstances begin to sour. 

We are evaluating our practices and will be adopting new guidelines on how we secure the assets the Lord, and you, have entrusted to our care. FYI, MNA Disaster Response has over 50 tagged vehicles that are strategically placed in PCA communities, so this is no small undertaking. And thanks for praying for us as we work to recover from this theft. Responding to disasters is expensive ministry, even when equipment doesn’t break or get stolen. Although the trailer had full coverage insurance on it, prices have risen dramatically in the last few years; this trailer has doubled in cost since we purchased it. The cost to replace this trailer and outfit is now over $20,000. If you would like to contribute to this need please mark your gift to Fund-0885 and add ‘Trailer Replacement’ in the memo line. 

MNADR leadership approved the purchase of a replacement trailer and outfitting; the replacement trailer is already working hard delivering HOPE. The stolen trailer’s twin will be transferred to the Dallas Depot.