MILLION-PLUS SHILLINGS MISSING!! UGANDA STORY

This portion of the story is true. One of the scariest stretches of time in Soroti that I ever went through.  Still working on the story, on this chapter, but sharing it anyhow, before the editing is completed.  Hopefully touching hearts.

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Cary, panicking, picked up her phone about 9:30 Saturday morning in Soroti and and called James.  It was nine hours earlier, shortly after midnight, his time.  When he, just waking up, said "Hello", and she heard his voice, she burst into tears.

Immediately, he was urgently awake.“What’s wrong, Honey?”

“Somehow I have lost about one-and-a-half million shillings.  Maybe more.  I have looked through everything and checked everywhere and the money is gone.  What am I gonna do?”

“Cary, that doesn’t make any sense.  You and Jill are very careful.”

“I know.  She keeps the ‘millions’ in her bag, and I keep the ‘thousands’ in mine.  Some is gone now from both, and that just couldn’t happen.  But it did.”

“Did you both have your purses or backpacks with you all the time?”

“Oh, YES! And we locked them in the office or our room very carefully.  And even if someone could have broken in and done it then, we would have figured it out quickly, because every day we did an accounting to make sure our figures were correct.  With everything that happened, for myself, all I can think is that when I was in the van giving money to the Pastor Josephs for the burial materials and coffin, that some might have fallen out of my purse or someone could have quietly stolen it... that happens so often around here.  But it wouldn’t have been the million; I spent a couple hundred thousand for the cloth, coffin, and the concrete that was placed over the grave.  I had a few hundred thousand shillings left, in case anything else was needed for the funeral.  And Jill never let her purse with the millions out of sight. And we weren't in the same place when this was going on.”

“Who do you have to tell about this?”

“Oh, James, the leaders from the UK and US and Uganda that were putting this ministry in place are the ones that provided the funding, and now I have to tell them.  How can I convince them that I wasn’t just being foolish or pocketing it for myself?  If they fuss about it, you and I have to give them US  equivalent of about $750 to cover this... and we can’t afford it, Honey.  I know that.... “

and she began crying again.

James stayed on the phone quietly and let her calm down.  Then he said,  “Cary, God is bigger... you say that all the time.  Don’t let this break your heart.  Money is money is money; relationships are much more important.  We will trust God to bring this to a close.  I know you have folks over there praying with and for you — and you have piles of folks over here who have you on their hearts.  I will email a few of them before I go back to sleep and will call others in the morning before I head to work.  Keep me posted.  Call me when you can, when you know more.  And, remember Honey, that I am always on your side."

“I don’t know what I’d do without you, James.  My heart is calming already.”

“I love you dearly, dear Cary.”

“You, too, Honey.”

They sweetly said “Good-bye” at the same moment.

Cary's tears disappeared.  Trusting God, trusting James, trusting that truth would come to the surface, she slept.