The last installment of this three-part post highlighting a harrowing ordeal that my good friend Brent Phillips experienced with his family while in Uganda.
Even if you don’t know my wife very well, you do know this Italian momma makes sure the people around her have plenty of food. She shows up with fruit, water, chicken, Pringles, bread and eggs. How she found all of this at that little market I have no idea. The officer then lets Bo out of the cell and we start eating and talking and the officer says, “I don’t think he should be here. I don’t understand why we are holding him.”
The phone rings and it is the embassy – the same agent I had talked to before. He tells me, “Bo will be released, as will his license and the car. There will be no court tomorrow and this will be finished.” The call from Nelson’s superior should come anytime now. I hang up and share the news with all in the lobby. Relief…
Time continues to tick on, though with no call. 10 minutes…20 minutes…30 minutes… so, I call him back. “We still haven’t received a call,” I said. He seems a bit more frustrated now, but assures me what he said will happen, will happen! “In fact, I will have his superior call you, his name is Major _______ and he will explain to you how this will all be finished.” He then asked me where in the states we were from.
“We were in California for about 35 years then spent the last 8 years in Austin, Texas.”
“Are you a Longhorn?” he asks.
“Yes, in fact I am wearing a burnt orange Texas Longhorn shirt right now.”
“Consider all of this an act of grace”, he says, “I am a graduate of Texas A & M.”
More time passes and hope is rising. There is more laughter than crying and we feel great appreciation for every person involved who desired to help us. Around 10:00 pm, Bo is released and we all head home.
It was on the way home, we talked of the fear, the worry, and the unknown of the situation as well as the grace, the mercy and the power of God in all of it. Bo said, “I am not sure all the things we are supposed to learn from this, other than make sure the convoy is all the way finished.” But, as soon as the door closed and I was alone in that cell Paul flashed into my brain and I just thought if God sustained Paul in much worse conditions than this, He can take care of me too.
Brent’s story is a great example of how God will allow us to face challenging life situations as a way of bringing us closer to him. Brent and his family still travel to Uganda several times a year in their role as the CEO of Cherish Uganda.