Sometimes we have such direct intervention by God, it brings home how personally God is involved in each of our lives—not only in the spiritual aspects, but also in our daily physical needs. Such a direct intervention happened a few months ago to Ron Lange, who attends the United Church of God congregation in Cape Town, South Africa.

The door was ajar

After the men’s leadership training session after church services, Ron offered to give Gareth Gordon a lift home. As Gareth and Ron approached the car, Gareth noticed that the passenger door was not closed completely. He asked Ron if he forgot to close the door, but Ron was adamant that he had checked all the doors when he locked the car.

This led them to carefully examine the car, which they might not have done otherwise, as it was dusk by this time. Upon closer examination it became clear that criminals had broken into the car. They must have had good knowledge of the make of car, because they had cleverly detached the alarm from the hooter (horn) and then opened the doors without much visible damage.

Luckily Ron had a gear-lock installed, so they were unable to steal the car. However they searched the car for valuables and found Ron’s filofax, which he had tucked under his seat. Ron didn’t normally bring the filofax with him, but that day was an exception. Unfortunately, the filofax contained Ron’s contacts, appointments and other information he needed, as well as his passport, driver’s license, some money and most of his bank and credit cards.

All of these things can be replaced, albeit at an inconvenience, but the problem was that Ron was due to fly to Hong Kong early the following morning.

Ron had no idea what he was going to do about his flight. It was a nonrefundable ticket, and the ticket cost was not covered by insurance.

Ron and Gareth canvassed the area surrounding the hall—in case the thieves had thrown something away for which they had no interest—but they didn’t find anything helpful. They then went to the police to report the break-in and to get a case number. The police came to the scene, but there was not much they could do. Then Gareth and Ron drove home and started canceling all the bank and credit cards.

Ron had no idea what he was going to do about his flight. It was a nonrefundable ticket, and the ticket cost was not covered by insurance. There was no way to get an emergency passport in a few hours, let alone on a Sunday. The Hong Kong trip was to replenish stock for his business, and without the stock, he could not trade and make a living. He was also meeting up with someone else in Hong Kong who was relying quite heavily on his assistance there.

The power of prayer

After canceling his cards, Ron, as well as others who had been notified about the problem, began to pray. As Jesus Christ said, “Whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive” (Matthew 21:22).

While Ron was praying, his phone rang. It was a woman in Parow (about 10 to 15 kilometers or 6 to 9 miles from the robbery). She had been driving and had spotted something lying in a gutter. She stopped her car and got out (in the rain!) to see what it was. She had found Ron’s filofax. And the passport was still inside! It is a miracle the thieves did not keep the passport to sell.

When the woman returned home, she went through considerable trouble to find Ron’s telephone number, including phoning his parents in East London and various other client contact numbers he had written in his filofax.

Ron was able to go and fetch his filofax immediately that evening. The passport was undamaged and Ron could make his flight, as well as getting back his valuable client contact lists.

Ron was able to transfer his travel money into the one last credit card that he had left at home and could proceed with his trip as planned.

While Ron was at the airport, waiting for his flight, he had another surprise. A man phoned to say he found Ron’s driver’s license, in a different location to the filofax, while he was out cycling. He had noticed something glinting on the ground and had stopped and picked up the license.

“Whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive” (Matthew 21:22).

It seems as though the thieves were looking through the filofax while driving and had thrown items out of the window as they went along. By God’s intervention, Ron was able to recover most of his things and only needed to reissue his bank and credit cards.

This is an inspiring story of how God sees what happens to us on a daily basis. He is actively watching us and has the ability to step in and rectify a seemingly impossible situation. Thanks to God for His interventions—those we find out about and those we don’t even realize have happened.