After twoish days of grueling travel, we arrived in Santiago, the capital of Chile, where we would wait until evening for our bus to take us on an eleven-hour journey to Frutillar, the city my team and I are staying in for the month. As we were each carrying roughly forty pounds on our backs and fifteen on our fronts with our two packs, we did not care to do much walking around so we settled in at a Starbucks in the town square. Upon entering the outdoor patio area, a man and woman helped us move tables and umbrellas around so that my team and I would all be able to sit together. Then they left. A couple minutes later, our two leaders realized that their day packs had been stolen. Apparently the couple had taken them, and they had moved the umbrellas around to cover the security camera. Day packs, by the way, are the storage place for basically everything important while traveling – electronics, passports, money, etc. The two girls, Abby and Emily, handled the situation incredibly well, with calmness and grace. (However, please pray for them!!) Since our leaders had both lost their passports, my five teammates and I would have to catch the bus to our ministry center on our own. However, since it was nighttime and we had had a direct encounter with the danger of Santiago, we asked the police if someone would be able to walk with us to the bus station (as we had been working with the police earlier in the day due to the theft situation and they had proven to be very friendly and helpful). The officer we were speaking with told us that unfortunately they were short on staff because of a lot of crime happening in the city that night.
Let’s talk about God’s provision. Some time later, after her pack was stolen, our leader, Emily, realized that she did indeed have her passport; it was tucked away in her purse where she informed us that she never ever kept it, meaning we would have an experienced world racer traveling to Frutillar with us! Furthermore, after receiving word from the police that we were on our own, we decided to make the trek on our own. “Hold on to your stuff,” someone remarked. We prayed for protection, put on our packs, and walked out of Starbucks. Right outside of the doors, we were stopped by security guards who pointed us to a group of policemen. We walked over and were met by the chief of police (I’m sure the terminology was different but that was the main idea) who told us he and three other officers would be accompanying us to the bus stop. Thus, we walked through the streets of Santiago with a legitimate police escort. It was quite a sight, but nothing else was stolen and our safety was in no way threatened.
We received no information on why the plans had been changed and there were suddenly ample police officers to accompany us, but we know who to thank for it. We asked for safety, and God provided us with an experienced leader and a group of police; it was incredible to see such a swift and practical answer to our prayers. Do not underestimate the power of God!
