God's Grace in My Inconvenience

By Corina S.

El Jordán is a ministry center in Santa Cruz, Bolivia run by Avant missionaries Marco and Corina. The staff at El Jordán helps families escape life on the streets by offering Bible studies (left) and training them in alternative ways to support themselves.

For my keys to be missing isn’t extraordinary … but this was different. On the last night of the international fair my purse was stolen. The fair was huge — something like six blocks by five blocks and 400,000 people attending during the 10 nights.  I remembered a little girl, who I thought was with a family I was selling to, standing in the corner behind me. If I hadn’t been so tired, I might have caught on. While there were no documents or money in my purse, the real loss was my huge set of keys for El Jordán, the house and my truck.
 
Every year our girls, who work as cleaners during the fair, find purses emptied of their valuables and thrown in the garbage, under plants and other random places. I talked to the cleaners, roaming police, recyclers and Jenny, one of our students who was still working, asking them to be on the lookout for my purse and keys. There was nothing more I could do so I composed myself and tried not to ask, “why?” and went back to work.
 
Later that night, I borrowed a coworker’s car to go pick up my extra keys. I was two blocks away when she called me and said, “Someone just brought me your purse and your keys!” 
 
Apparently my purse showed up on someone’s table in the artisan section.  No one knew where it had come from or who had left it there. They found a price tag from El Jordán and thought it must be mine.
 
If the story ended there, it would have been a great testimony of God’s grace. We have no idea how the purse showed up or what made the person who stole it not dispose of it right away. With crowds of people and so many dark corners where my keys could have been, yet God kept them safe and returned them. But the story got even better.
 
The next afternoon I had Bible study at El Jordán.  Jenny was there with another lady. That morning as the cleaners got together at the fair for a meeting, Jenny asked different ones if they had found some keys.  “They are a sister’s keys. She helps a lot of people and she really needs her keys.”  She noticed one lady who was really sad, sitting on a curb and told her the same story. The sad eyes looked up and asked, “What is that sister’s name?”  Jenny answered, “Corina.”
 
Immediately her face brightened.  “Hermana Corina? I’ve wanted to meet her for years!  I’ve always wanted someone to take me to her but no one ever has.” 
 
So Jenny brought her to El Jordán and the lady stayed for Bible study. Isn’t God’s grace and mercy amazing?  If it wasn’t for my keys, Jenny most likely never would’ve talked to her. The lady, Jackie, who has a huge burn scar on her arm which partially affects its movement, has been trying to get small jobs like the fair cleaning to earn money. Doña Gorda, who died a couple months back, was a good friend of hers and had mentioned me. Jackie cried and said, “I’m so happy. I’m so happy to have met you...”
 
I explained how God knew her sadness and hopelessness. He cared for her enough that He allowed my keys to get stolen and returned so that she would have a chance to come to a place that teaches about Him.
 
God is good. Through my temporary inconvenience He brought something more valuable to me: a woman in desperate need of His love and grace. Please pray that Jackie will desire to return to El Jordán and one day know Christ as her personal Savior.