"Stolen" Van

Most of you have heard about our "stolen" van. Here is what happened. We had been having problems with our radiator. We took my tutor home, and then realized it was dangerously close to overheating. We were in the neighborhood of our mechanic, whose shop is next door to our church. We went to park the van there, and hit a parked car. It was for sale, so there was a number in the window. We called the number, the lady came right down, we paid her some money and pushed the car over to the curb because at this point it wouldn't start. We decided to leave it there because we didn't have much choice! So we pushed it directly under a street light outside our chapel. When we got home that night, Julia started crying for her chirpie, her little plastic bird that Aunt Terry got her for her birthday and that has become almost like a pet. She had it in her coat pocket, and it had fallen out. David told her he had seen it on the floor of the van and that we would get it the next day. The next day David went to have the mechanic look at the van and have his tutor hours at the chapel. But when he got there the van was gone. He called me right away to tell me it had been stolen, and that he and his tutor, Christian, were going to go to the police station to report it. I was almost in tears, and as sad about that silly bird as I was about losing the van. So the kids and I prayed. Davey prayed "Dear Heavenly Father, Please help our van not to be stolen away. And please, help all the people here to learn English". Then I had to break the news to Julia that chirpie had been stolen away. I was prepared for the worst, after her tantrum the night before. Instead she said "That's OK. It can just fly up to the sky and someone in a airplane will get it and bring it to me". And she went on as if nothing had happened. Simple. A while later I called the Flemings, another missionary family that lives in our neighborhood, to tell them, and Mr. Fleming said it had probably just been towed. What a relief! By then David was at the police station. We believe thieves had messed with the alarm system, because there were wires hanging down, and were in the van, because papers were all over the floor. Apparently, neighbors called the police and said there was a strange van parked outside and they thought it had a bomb in it. The police got there right away, and possibly scared away the theives. They then towed it to "the patio". That had the ring of Alcatraz to me when I heard it. Did cars ever return from there? Well, David spent 7 hours retrieving it from there. I guess it was quite a racket. The police told him it was in fact towed and where to go. When he arrived there at the patio, and after waiting in a lengthy line, he found out he needed to have so many copies of the car's paperwork. Handily, there is a place right outside the door making a killing making copies. (I wondered if they didn't just throw the extra copies away after you left!). I think he had to wait in line again to hand the copies in. From there he had to go quite a ways away (not within walking distance) to make the payment. There are handily a line of taxis waiting to take you there and back! Then when David finally made it back to the patio, the van's bateria was dead of course, from the alarm going off for hours, and so he had to pay the men there money to jump the car. Of course, at that point, after 7 hours going through this process and waiting in the long lines that almost weren't moving at all, he was just glad to be able to pay someone to start it and be on his way. I believe he also had to pay a ticket at the police station. The strangest thing was that after all that, when the mechanic looked at it, he couldn't find anything wrong with the radiator! We had seen a puddle of radiator fluid under the car on Sunday, and it was definitely overheating on Monday. Very strange! David thinks we're going to keep on having car problems until our mechanic, George, gets saved. He agreed to a bible study with David and his tutor, then backed out, but has had breakfast with them and says he's been reading his bible. So what are a few mechanical inconviences in light of that?

David may have to edit this as I know I'm missing a lot of details, length of lines, number of lines to stand in, number of people who knew English, etc., but you can get the general gist for now!