There are so many stories that have happened over the last 7 months that it has been impossible to share them all. But this story, which happened last month in Vietnam, deserves retelling.
It was a Friday night and our team had boarded a packed city bus headed to a Christmas program where we would be singing a few songs and Chip would be serving as the honorary Santa Claus. Upon entering the bus only GaNene and Amanda were able to find seats next to the window directly behind each other. The rest of us were standing in the aisles trying to make room for more passengers. Now there wasn’t anything unusual about this scene because we lived this for the last 6 months. However about 15 minutes into the ride things changed quickly.
It started with GaNene yelling something towards us from her seat several rows behind us. At first, no one understood what she was saying. From what I gathered someone had sat down next to her with a Durian fruit and the smell of it was making her sick so she needed the bus to stop so she could get off. Others around me heard different things as well, but with the noise on the bus it was hard to hear what she was saying. But then things came together, but we didn’t want to believe what we heard.
She was now saying, “The woman that was sitting next to me took my wallet and she just got off the bus. I need to get off and try to find her!” At this point our bus had already traveled 5 or 6 blocks from where the woman had gotten off. GaNene hadn’t seen the woman take her wallet, but a university student near her began motioning to GaNene because he couldn’t speak English after the woman got of the bus that she had taken the wallet. We needed to make a decision quickly about what to do. I decided to get off with GaNene to go look for this woman because Chip couldn’t miss the Christmas program because he was playing Santa. So GaNene and I grabbed Shelly”s (another team leader who was with us) cellphone and jumped off the bus at the next stop.
As we got off the bus GaNene said that she didn’t know what the woman looked like. The only thing that she had noticed was that the woman’s finger nails had been painted with a pink design. Being in a city of 12 million people I wasn’t optimistic to begin with, but this information made our task seem almost impossible. As we began walking back up the street from where our bus had traveled I quickly said a prayer out loud.
“Jesus you are going to have to make this happen. There is no way we are going to find this woman on our own!”
With that being said I told GaNene to look across the street and up the different alleys we were passing thinking the culprit had probably slipped down one of them. I was just along for support because I had no idea who we were looking for.
And then after less than 4 minutes of walking it happened…
I noticed out of the corner of my eye that GaNene had stopped walking. I turned to see her starring at a woman sitting at a plastic table and she said, “Tyler, that is the woman!!” In disbelief and with lots of uncertainty I said, “No way! Are you positive?!” As GaNene stepped closer to the woman she could see her fingernails and knew without a doubt that it was our woman.
UNBELIEVABLE!!!
The woman was unscrewing the cap on a Coca-Cola she had just purchased as she sat at this table. As the woman noticed us walking her direction her demeanor didn’t change the way you’d think it would. GaNene told her we knew that she had the wallet, but the woman didn’t speak English and started to make hand signals like she didn’t know why we were there talking to her. So immediately GaNene began to reach towards the woman’s purse sitting under the table to check for herself.
At this the woman quickly picked her purse up and started to look through it like she couldn’t find what we were looking for hoping to appease us. But then inside the purse GaNene and I caught a glimpse of the very distinctive denim fanny pack that GaNene keeps her money in. At this GaNene began to reach towards the purse to grab it. At this the woman knew now that she was officially caught. She handed the fanny pack to GaNene who quickly checked to make sure her bankcards where still intact because it would have been a major headache to try to get those replaced halfway around the world. Thankfully they were both there.
While this was going on the woman reached back into her purse and pulled out a wad of cash that she then extended towards GaNene. We assume she must have already pulled the cash out and bought herself the Coca-Cola we watched her open. After retrieving all of GaNene’s belongings we attempted to find someone who would translate for us so we could talk to this woman, but we didn’t have any luck.
So we started walking back down the street in the direction we’d come from originally. We made a stop for ice cream to celebrate, caught a taxi, and made it to our Christmas program only about 10 minutes late.
Absolutely crazy and if I’m honest not at all how I saw the situation playing out. In my head I’d already been thinking about the headache GaNene was going to have trying to cancel and replace her bankcards.
But I should never underestimate God.
We were literally searching for the needle in a haystack of a city of 12 million people after having the bus travel numerous blocks from where we needed to be to find this woman. But in less than 4 minutes we found a woman whose appearance we didn’t even know. I don’t believe for a second it was just chance that this worked out how it did.
God totally showed off on this night. It was a reminder of his faithfulness and provision even in the small things. With that being said
Be encouraged to pray to your Father. He is listening and delights in answering! It doesn't have to be just the "BIG THINGS' but he wants us to talk to him about everything.
If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.
(Matthew 21:22 NIV)
