On Sunday August 26 Grandma and I were driving from Gothenburg,Sweden to Copenhagen, Denmark and we left our hotel about 11 am after another nice breakfast. The car had been in a nearby parking garage for three nights in Gothenburg since everyone rides the trollies and buses. We stopped to see Gunnebo Slott, an old manor house with a farm and gardens built by a rich merchant about 10 miles outside of Gothenburg. We bought tickets for a guided tour and had a snack (coffee and cinnamon roll for me) while we waited for the tour. After the tour of the "summer" house- that took 15 years to build and was finished in 1796 when George Washington was president of America- we walked down the long driveway to our car parked in a lot along the country road.
When we reached our car some people were getting out of a car next to it and we noticed that one of the small back windows behind the passenger door was broken and all of our suitcases were gone- our two large suitcases, two carryon cases and our backpack. Everything we had on our trip, except what we were wearing and carrying with us was gone! "Oh no" we said together. This was so shocking, so totally unexpected. I prayed "Oh Lord, what are going to do? Since everything is gone, are we going to have to fly home and miss the rest of our trip"? We were dazed, I couldn't move, I didn't know what to say or what to do next. The people next to us saw the broken window and asked us what had happened. They helped us by calling the police number on their phone, but they said the local police station was closed and the wait time to report something was 30 minutes. They advised us to return to Gothenburg and report the highway robbery at the main station, near our hotel we had just left. So we drove back to Gothenburg and waited to give a report to the police, to have a police report about the car break-in and robbery. While we waited we began to talk about what we should do. We wanted someone to advise us. Grandma called Aunt Meadow to tell her our bad news and help us consider the possibilities and turn our hearts and minds towards God to ask Him to help us.
We were safe, nobody had hurt us, we had not been in a car accident and nobody had stolen the car. I had my camera and Grandma had our passports and credit cards in her purse. I had left my iPhone in the front seat but it was covered by our travel book and the robbers didn't see it, so I still had my iPhone. We could buy new clothes and bathroom supplies and anything else we needed for our trip. I had just refilled my insulin pump so I had enough insulin to last four days, but I didn't have any more insulin or needles for my next insulin, and I didn't have my blood sugar test meter to check my sugar before each meal. We decided to go to the emergency room of the hospital to see what they could give us- maybe a prescription from a doctor to get more insulin. So we drove across town but the nurses could only test my sugar with their meter and give me a shot of insulin if my sugar was high- there was not a doctor to give me a prescription. My sugar was fine, and they suggested going to the public health office on Monday to see about more insulin. So we drove back to the police office and checked on our crime report. Now they told us they were busy and couldn't get the report done that day- they took our written information and said they would mail the report to our house- so we would have it after our trip- for our insurance claim. So we drove down the street to our hotel and Judy recharged her iPhone in the lobby using their charger while I went down the street to a shopping mall with a pharmacy to see if I could buy a sugar meter and a phone charger from another store. I was able to get both items- the two things we needed the most to keep going- I could test my sugar again and we had a charger to keep our phones working.
Mike- when something unexpected and shocking or frightening happens to you, you need to find a fortress or a hiding place to rest and recover. God promises to be our fortress and our stronghold when enemies attack us or when troubles or a disaster happens to us. We took refuge in the Lord and asked Him to show us what we should do next. We felt helpless but we knew God promises to be our helper when we run to Him. We went to the police station and to our hotel lobby to be in a safe place while we considered what to do next. We had hotel reservations in Copenhagen for four nights and we knew that our airline, Norwegian, flew from Copenhagen to Oakland if we decided to fly home early. So we went across to the train station that is always open and bought something to eat and also bought bathroom articles and left about 6 pm for Copenhagen- trusting that God would lead us step by step and day by day after our "disaster"- that's what we called our highway robbery in Sweden.
We called Meadow again when we made it to Copenhagen about 11 pm (2 pm your time) and gave her a list of the medical supplies we needed. She planned to gather our supplies from our house and send them Monday afternoon by Federal Express overnight mail that would arrive in Copenhagen on Wednesday morning. We fell asleep exhausted and discouraged, although we did realize that God had helped us drive safely and find our hotel and we had a bed to sleep in and Meadow was going to send the insulin and medical supplies that we needed to continue our trip.
Monday morning we went looking for a breakfast place because our Copenhagen hotel did not serve breakfast like all of the other hotels on our trip. The clerk had showed us on our city map a street with a few cafes- so we walked there in the drizzle with just one umbrella that Grandma had taken with her to see the house on Sunday. We found a bakery with the window full of pastries and Grandma found a bagel shop next door to order an egg salad bagel and hot chocolate. We ended up going there each morning for breakfast while we were in Copenhagen. It was another little fortress (place of refuge) that God gave us each morning to start our days of recovery. The main thing we wanted was to find some new clothes- we had slept in our clothes from Sunday. We found a H&M clothes store and I was able to find everything I needed- a pair of jeans, underwear, colored tee-shirts and two long sleeve shirts- one checkered red and one checkered pink- you will see lots of pictures with me in those shirts because they were my new travelling clothes. Grandma had more trouble finding clothes that she liked, but she made a start with a few pants and tops and other basics. We walked back in pouring rain huddled together under one umbrella- I wished I had remembered to buy another one. We found a McDonalds for a late lunch and finally found our hotel- I had gotten mixed up with the curving streets in a new city- a map works best after you have already been somewhere.
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| The bakery full of treats- our morning refuge. |
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| The bagel shop next door |
Love, Grandpa and Grandma
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