A nerve-wracking thing happened to me last Friday. After a great meeting in church, I headed down to this Japanese store called Daiso to buy some clay that I had promised the girls. Our center is in a mall, FYI. I was carrying my bag on my shoulder, my ipad in my arm, and my car keys in my hand. I found the clay, paid for it, said hi to friends I bumped into, walked to the car, dropped a couple of friends off at another mall, got home, dismissed our stay-out helper, gave Danae the clay, and checked on sleeping Noelle. I was home for about 15 minutes before I had the urge to check my messages.
The ipad was missing! I checked the car and it wasn’t there either! King was speaking at a high school retreat far away, so obviously he couldn’t help me. I tried calling the church, but there was no answer. Thank God my friend (and church staff) Ria picked up her cellphone when I called. She was already out of the office, but I told her the situation and she was on top of it right away. She called one of our church guards to go down to Daiso and check. I was sure that I left it on the counter when I paid.
While I was waiting, I just kept praying and asking God to save me! It was extremely careless of me to lose something so expensive, just like that. Plus, it was given to me by my mom. I could probably live with myself more if I’d bought it myself. Although I would have also died if it were King’s that I’d lost. He just “loves” that thing.
After around thirty minutes of calling each other back and forth, Ria told me that my ipad WAS there. They just needed me to give them information that would assure them that it really is mine. Whew! As my kids would say, THAT WAS “CLOSED”!
God indeed saved me — from the guilt, from the shame, from having to explain and apologize to my mom who gave it to me, to my husband who already thinks I’m extremely forgetful, and to my kids who use it! I sooo appreciate Ria and our guard Martin for going the extra mile for me. And the people in Daiso….who says Filipinos are corrupt? There are still honest, good-hearted, LIVING Filipinos today. They could have said it wasn’t there or pretended that they didn’t see it, right off the bat. But they didn’t. I have yet to personally thank them, but I believe that God will reward them richly for their honesty and kindness. 🙂
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Whew! That was “closed” indeed!! Yes, there are still good Filipinos around.
“Closed”! Left the center late that night, and I was wondering why your iPad was just there on King’s table. Kaya pala. Praise God indeed for saving you. 🙂 Brings me to say, what else can He not save us from talaga nga ano? Amazing God. Amazing grace!;)