How God looked after me when my bag was stolen at the beach

Seeing God’s care in a difficult situation

One Sunday in March this year I invited my granddaughter to come to the beach with me in Muizenberg, Cape Town (where we live). It was a beautiful day, and we parked the car and walked down to the beach. I put my beach bag and body board on the side below the walk-way, and leaned back on my body board, which covered my beach bag. We sat chatting for a good hour. The beach was very busy. I decided to go and feel the water to see if I would have a swim, and I stayed paddling in the shallows for a while. I decided not to swim, and, as it was now 4pm, I said to my granddaughter that we’d have to leave soon. I moved my body board to get my bag, and I realised it wasn’t there. If someone had stolen my bag and found my car keys, I needed to stay with my car so they didn’t drive off with it. We quickly went to the car and a young couple walked past. I approached them and they said they were from Norway doing a Bible course at Youth with a Mission (YWAM). I told them what had happened, and asked them to phone my daughter to get my spare keys from home. Then I realised I had forgotten her number! So the kind man offered to get an Uber to send me home for my keys. I did not want to leave the car, so I sent my teenage granddaughter.

I stood waiting while still only dressed in my swimming costume and beach cover. One guy on his bike asked if I was OK, then a mother and daughter offered to call the neighbourhood watch who could keep an eye on the car, so that nothing happened to it. He arrived, and stood with me. Then the Norwegian guy, Eric, who had phoned the Uber came back, to let me know my granddaughter had got home. He told me to go into the YWAM offices and they would look after me. As I was waiting I said to the Lord: “It was a wonderful church service this morning, about how big and majestic you are. We were worshipping you and I felt so filled with your Holy Spirit, and now this evil happens to me – why Lord?” I didn’t hear an answer straight away. 

My daughter eventually arrived, and I took one more look over the beach to see if my bag had been discarded anywhere. On the way home, I decided I should go to the police station to report it because if I claimed for insurance, I would need a case number. So I went to the police station and there was a young man sitting behind the booth. He said he was going off duty and didn’t want to help. I told him I needed to get my granddaughter to church, and asked if I could start filling in my information. He said “OK”, and started to help me by writing out my details. He asked: “What was in your bag – car keys?” and suddenly I heard a voice behind me say: “Car keys!” I turned around and a man was walking into the police station with my car keys in his hand. He said he had seen a guy walking up and down the cars parked outside the shops with car keys. I was astounded, as this was two hours since I realised my bag was missing. 

God showed me he had looked after me that day. He is an “ever present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). He showed me that when evil happens, he is planning good for me, and he retrieved that which was stolen and gave it back to me. I can’t stop telling people how good he is!

Ronnie

Encouragement through words of knowledge

In March I went to a Filling Station conference. I went to the seminar on healing, and at the end they asked if anyone had any words of knowledge in accordance with 1 Corinthians 12:8. I had the word ‘retina’ and a picture of a right ear opening up from being deaf. The lady behind me so: “Oh that is for my son – he has just been told he has a condition that is making him deaf in his right ear, and it is also affecting his eyes.” We prayed for her son’s healing, and then she said to me: “I know you!” I didn’t recognise her, but she explained that a year before we had been at a women’s breakfast together and I had prayed for her. She said I had a word of knowledge that God wanted to use her voice. Not long after the meeting she was approached to join a worship group to sing. It was just a small group meeting in a home, but from that her pastor asked her to join the worship team and she is now leading worship in church. She said she never would have believed that would have happened, but God knew and wanted to encourage her that he knows her, and has “good works…prepared in advance” for her to do (Ephesians 2:10). I was also encouraged, as giving a word of knowledge is an act of faith in itself!

Eleanor 

A month of blessings

Ever since my Hillsong College days, when we were encouraged to make bold statements in line with God’s word, over a day, week, month or situation, I have occasionally felt a nudge to declare that a whole month be in accordance with a specific word aligning with scripture. For instance, I declared March the month of miracles this year. I felt a particular prompt from the Holy Spirit for this as my husband and I have been standing in faith for financial breakthrough, having had a season of harsh drought in that area. We definitely needed miracles in the area of provision and I trusted that God would provide in ways only he could. Declarations in line with God’s word are simply reiterating his promises back to him; they are nothing to do with wishful thinking. I stood on God’s word, that the whole world is his and all that is within it and that he delights in giving us, his children, good gifts. And I asked for my eyes to be opened to his provision, to see with spiritual eyes. 

We received so many miracles in the month of March – the greatest of all being the miracle of a shift in perspective. Rather than seeing a miracle as an interruption to the norm and something unexpected, I came to see that it is in fact a miracle to be alive. So miracles surround us each and every day – if only we have eyes to see it that way. In addition to realigning my faith vision, I also received tangible and meaningful gifts such as a beautiful bottle of shower gel, from a friend who knew I was having to use my children’s one as we couldn’t afford to buy a bottle this month; and I received unexpected gifts of money from family members in the post. My husband and I had a miraculous day together to do fun things, thanks to my kind sister looking after our children (an unexpected and much-needed gift as we hadn’t had time like that on our own for over three years). My daughter was gifted all her maths lessons with her tutor for the month and we were gifted a holiday by the sea as a family. 

There really was a miracle I could record each day. It’s incredible too to look back and see the visible gifts God gave us through others, and to see his generous hand move on our behalf. I felt a sense of sadness at stopping the journal as it had become a daily gratitude response, a pause at the end of each day to reflect on all that God has done for us that day. 

Hannah