I generally think of myself as a person who has her business together but I feel like I've now had enough occasions in my life that I can no longer make that claim. (Wallet left all week in my unlocked car in Belfield during Challenge '08?) Last Sunday, I lost my phone at a Washington, DC Metro Station and, by the literal grace of God, I got it back!
We were all on our way back to the hotel after seeing the Newseum and the Holocaust Museum as well as eating lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. After a day out and about, we were heading back to the hotel to get ready to kick off our Close Up week. I had one girl who was having issues with her Metro card so I stayed behind before moving to our train to make sure she was able to put more fare on her card. We never were able to get her card straightened out so we were headig to talk to the station official when I see Dave* digging through his pockets for his phone. I reach in my bag to call him when I realize that I can't find my phone either. I dug through my pockets, pretty much emptied my backpack, and finally just admitted defeat.
My phone was gone and I had no idea how I had lost it.
(As much as they can drive us completely insane at times, the group of boys who stayed back to help Dave and I saved the day. They had downloaded an app for tracking lost phones and both Dave and I had our phones locked and reported as missing within about five minutes of realizing they were gone.)
Blake* was kind enough to allow me to use his phone number as the contact point should somebody have found my phone. Maybe five minutes later, Blake gets a call on his phone from some guy who has my phone and would like to arrange a meeting the next day to return it to me. Normally that would have been just fine, but with neither Dave nor I having our phones and us being halfway across the country with a group of school students, I needed my phone ASAP. The guy** on the other line told me he was on his way to church otherwise he'd turn back and meet me. We chatted back and forth for while and he have me an address. After seeing this church was going to be twelve miles from the hotel and deciding I was frazzled enough already, I decided that instead of trying to dominate the Metro after it was clearly trying to dominate both Dave and I, I would just take a cab to retrieve my phone. Meanwhile, Dave is having no luck getting his phone back at all. (Perhaps his guardian angel has had less practice than mine?)
All in the span of about 45 minutes, we get back to the hotel, I ask the front deal to call me a cab, and I wait. In the meantime, I googled the address and realized that I am indeed on my way to a Baptist church.
We (the cab driver and I) made our twelve mile trek with one stop for gas and one wrong turn. I went to a modular classroom at the back of the parking lot as the man on the phone told me to. I opened the door and nobody turned a head in my direction at all. I had seen a deaf church advertised on the website and turns out that's where I had ended up. I finally caught somebody's attention and she put me in touch with a hearing gal who handed me my phone and offered to have me stay. I politely declined, gave her $60 to pass along to my phone rescuer, and turned to leave but before I made it out, I at least mustered up a signed "thank you" to everybody there. (For somebody who is decently communicative in ASL, I sure biffed it a good one whilst at the deaf church.)
As I was getting into the cab, a deaf lady ran out of the modular door and ran toward the car. She handed me three tracts and as I reached out to accept them, she caught me in a big embrace. I'm usually so good about avoiding "spontaneous stranger hug" situations and I can often spot the move a mile away, but she got me this time. I'm pretty sure she prayed for me as she hugged me because as she stepped away, she signed "amen." The can driver brought me back to the heotel and I paid my $60 bill (fare + tip).
And thus concludes the story of the time I paid $120 for my free iPhone and hugged a stranger all in the same day.
If this story doesn't scream that God has His hand in the little things, than I'm not sure what will.
Dave got his phone back Monday morning after it went on an exhaustive tour of Maryland and ended up in a really rough neighborhood. Many of the locals told Dave to just cut his losses and get a new phone. For whatever reason, somebody else was willing to inconvenience himself two hours to bring Dave's phone back to the hotel for a $50 reward. Again, God is in the little things.
*Names have been changed to protect the partially innocent
**I never did get his name.
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