After church on June 6, we traveled by metro to lunch. As I approached the escalator to exit the metro station, a man to my right grabbed our baby stroller. A man to my left stepped in front of me, pushing me and blocking my path. I scuffled with these two men, picked up the stroller and pushed past them. Seconds later I realized that a third man had come up behind me and had stolen my wallet. I turned to run after them, but there were too many people.
At that moment there was almost nothing I could do. My passport was being registered with the local government. I couldn’t report the incident to the police as I would have been guilty for having no identification. Our missionary friends came to our rescue with a love offering since we now had no credit cards, no debit cards, almost no cash, and no immediate access to cash. We prayed.
After lunch, although three hours had passed, as we descended on the escalator into the same metro station, there they stood, looking for their next victim. My passport had been returned to me during lunch, so I now had proper ID. Brother Igor and I approached one of the men. While we talked, Brother Ron took our picture. The alleged thief became very upset and caused a scene, drawing the attention of the police. I would not press charges if my wallet was returned to me. It took only three hours, and in the end, the police had found my wallet and returned it to me, with all my bank cards in place. This was a miracle! We had prayed that God would do this for us, and He did! By the way, the picture that Brother Ron took was nothing but a blur!
My children were present when all of this occurred. At the end of the day, after assuring them that even prior to the event, God was aware of all that would happen, our daughter Alaina proclaimed, “Well, I guess this is just how God planned our day today!”
Jim Hutchinson, Russia