On Friday I had mentioned that my keys, all of them (car, apartment and church keys) had gone missing. There were 2 electronic key fobs, and keys that would not have been easy to replace that promised me no end of irritation and expense.

I have been asking the Lord (rather sheepishly) to help me find them. But I had planned on beginning the process of replacing them on Monday. Today, after our church service in Chinatown was over, I moved over to our other building to join our Lunch Fellowship small group. On the way over, I noticed an older man who appeared like so many others I have seen walking by. Unkempt, unshaven and talking to himself. As I passed by him I heard him muttering something like “found some keys”. The words didn’t register in my head until after I entered the building. When the words hit me, I jumped back outside the door, hoping the man was still there, and he was. I quickly got his attention and asked him, “Did you just say you found some keys?”

“Yes, I did,” he responded. 

“Do you have them on you? Can I see them?”

“Umm, they’re at home. I left them there. But I can get them. I live only ½ block from here.”

Off he went, and came back shortly thereafter with all of my keys. He had found them on the sidewalk on Friday, and on Sunday, he just happened to pass by, muttering that he had found some keys and out of a couple of hundred people milling around inside and outside of our church, I “happened” to be out there at exactly the right time to hear him mutter.

I told him that he had been sent by God and was an answer to prayer, and he went on his way encouraged, and I praised God for another answer to prayer.

- Used with permission: A story of answered prayer from the Facebook page of Pastor Werner Peters (www.facebook.com/wernerpeters)