As my friends and I drove up to our hostel, our Uber driver urged us to quickly get out of the car because the street we were on was very busy. I jumped out of the car and closed the door, and immediately I knew that I left my phone in the vehicle. But, before I could re-open the door our driver sped off.
Panic starts to set in and I tell my friends what happen. We rush into the hostel to figure out what to do. Somehow we were able get ahold of our Uber driver and twenty minutes later we were searching his car for my phone. However, it was no longer in the car. He said it must have fallen out when I got out of the car or when he went grocery shopping.
Tears were forming in my eyes as we walked back into the hostel to get ready for our long bus ride from Cape Town to Jeffrey’s Bay. I’m about to message my mum about what happened when Claire exclaimed, “Claudia your phone connected to WiFi. I can see it on Find My Friends.”
My phone had connected to a public WiFi server a block away from our hostel.
The next moments were a bit of a blur because we only had 15 minutes until we had to leave for the bus station. There was no time for hesitation, so Lubbock, Claire, and I ran to the area where my Phone appeared to be on Find My iPhone.
Find My iPhone showed that my phone was a Pizza Hut. There was no one inside the restaurant, so we quickly ruled it out. Next door to the Pizza Hut was a hookah bar. We were contemplating going inside the hookah bar and I glanced at my watch to check the time. On my Garmin watch I noticed it said that I was Bluetooth connected to my phone!
Immediately, I had hope that I would find my phone, and this led us to enter the hookah bar. I literally stared down every patron and phone in the building. As we were walking around the hookah bar my phone disconnected from my watch. Feeling defeated we exited the hookah bar and apologized to the employees for any confusion about us walking around.
I was ready to give up, but Lubbock encouraged me to at least check in the McDonalds before we left. We wanted to know that we knew we tried everything, so we quickly ran through the McDonalds. No luck.
I was ready to call a quits as I exited the McDonalds, but then my watch reconnected to my phone. Desperately, I started pacing around to try and figure out where my phone was.
Eventually, I walked into this circle of about eight men. A thousand thoughts are spiraling in my mind as I stare at their hands and pockets. Then, I clicked the “Find My Phone” function on my watch— honestly, I don’t know what made me do this because when I have tried to use this function in the past it’s never worked. Almost immediately, I could hear a strange chiming sound and I knew it had to be my phone. Then, Lubbock and Claire come up behind me and asked them if any of them found a phone.
This short man came swaggering up to us and said he found a phone. Lubbock insisted that he should show us it because I lost mine. He then slowly pulled a phone out of his pocket. He turned on the device and my screensaver lit up the face of the phone.
I’m at a loss for words, so I try to prove to him it’s mine by putting in the passcode. As I’m doing this Claire says, “Thanks, that’s ours!” and starts grabs it from his hand. Then, I snagged my phone from Claire. The man starts to try and say something, but we couldn’t hear him because Lubbock exclaimed “thanks for the help we have to catch our bus.” Then we all start running away from the group of men.
As I think about all the things that had to happen in order for me to be reunited with my phone it’s SO obvious how the Lord was moving. For starters, when you connect to McDonalds or Pizza Hut WiFi you normally have to type in a bunch of your personal information. Somehow, my phone just connected without anyone doing that… what?? Also, it’s a miracle that my watch Bluetooth connected to my phone and that the “Find My Phone” function actually worked. And, the fact that the man that found my phone willingly showed it to me instead of lying about it.
It gives me goosebumps thinking about all these small miracles lining up perfectly. Looking back on this day it’s clear that God moved in a BIG way; however, in the moment it wasn’t so obvious. The fact is He’s always moving in our lives even if we aren’t aware of it.
How has the Lord been moving in your life?
xoxo claudzilla
