Posse

I have been asked many times what my days are like. Working in Uganda brings unique opportunities to help people and share Christ ... today was no exception.
I was driving down the dirt road by the swamp near the Rwenzori View Guest house when Carol frantically waved me down from her Suzuki. She was carrying a British man named Peter who had been beaten and robbed just seconds before. He told me that he was walking back to the Guest House and there was a man walking in front of him and there was another a little ways behind him. The man in front quickly circled behind him and threatened him and told him to stay quiet. He yelled. One man jumped and kicked him in the chest with both feet and knocked him to the ground.
The men kicked and beat him as they fought him and then tore his backpack off his back. Carol was driving towards them and saw this man being beaten up. The thieves took his bag and ran into the bushes. She told Peter to jump in her car. They had only gone a few feet when Dick and I showed up from the other way.
We jumped out and got people to help. Within minutes I found myself running through the swamp with a pose of armed men with Ak47s. I was carrying a machete, fillet knife and some handcuffs that I keep in the center console of the truck.
We tried to surround the swamp and then search from all directions. Several times I was up to my knees in mud as we tracked them through the bush. We broke up into groups and I was with a policeman and two other men with their ak47s. (I thought to myself, with all of these guns I'm glad that Dick Cheney is not with us!)
We found a bag of clothes that had been there for a while. Someone else had been robbed. We pulled up some marijuana plants that we came across. We tracked these guys and even found where one of them pulled off his socks to run bare foot through the mud. We had just missed these guys according to an old man who saw two men covered in mud running through his farm. We searched for two and half hours but our man-hunt turned up empty. I took Peter to the police station to help him file a police report. It can be a scary procedure for a foreigner so I stayed to help him. The police took about an hour and a half. Then I drove him to his guest house.
Before leaving I thanked the policeman for his help and he said "what you have done is real Christianity. The way you helped this man That is what Christians do. Even though we did not catch the thieves, we tried our best and God sees that. God bless you, Jeff
That was a response that I did not expect.
On the way to the guest house Peter told me that he felt so bad that he had wasted my entire evening.
"You didn't waste my evening. I'm just glad you didn't get hurt. Peter, I'm a Christian missionary... I'm here to help people and share the love of Jesus. If you need money, clothes, food anything just let me know. I've been robbed, beaten up or attacked several times and it is scary especially when you are in a foreign country. At least you'll have a good story to tell."
"Jeff, you have done so much for me tonight. I'm ok now. Thank you for helping me."
"Have a good night, Peter"