Springing Ahead
So much has happened in such a short amount of time, leaving very little time to write about it all. So a recap of my Spring adventures thus far.
Picking out the Treasure from the Trash
At the end of March I was blessed to have my parents come visit. After a short term mission trip to Albania, Croatia, and Poland they came to visit for a few days before heading home. Although their visit was brief we managed to pack in a lot of excitement.
On their first day here the plan was to see the sights which included a trip up to Prague Castle. I invited along one of my friends who I often set out on adventures with and has been deemed my fellow adventure buddy. We ventured out early to catch the tram to the castle. Tram 22 is the tourist tram since it hits the main tourist attractions. For this reason it is also affectionately known to locals as the pick-pocket-tram since it is always quite packed and full of pick-pockets and tourists right for the picking.
With this in mind we squeezed onto the crowded tram and by the time we reached the castle my Father discovered his pocket had been picked and his wallet was gone!
Great sadness fell heavy upon me, all plans for showing my parents a wonderful time seemed to have slipped away. We returned to the hotel so Dad could call to cancel his credit card and I sat down rather defeated and disappointed that this is the memory my parents would take home with them about their visit to Prague. A city I have grown to love and my parents had unfortunately been exposed to its ugly underbelly. Mom in her wisdom shared with me the song that was running through her head "Praise God from whom all Blessings Flow". I looked at her in disbelief and stated I don't know how this could ever be called a blessing. In my head all I could see was a ruined day that seemed irreparable.
As I sat pondering ways to salvage our day I recalled a discussion I had previously with co-workers about the nature of Prague pick-pockets. Often their goal is quick cash so they will grab the cash and toss the rest. With this theory in mind I suggested to my adventure buddy that perhaps if we did a little dumpster diving we may be able to find the lost wallet. Tracing back through our trip we narrowed down the possible location where the picking may have occurred. When we
had got on the tram, it was very crowded and there was this guy who kept pressing up against us, weaving around us, and acting very, very suspicious. He got off at the next stop. After that, Dad had sat down. So, we were pretty sure we knew Mr. Pick-Pocket had gotten off at the second stop. So, Adventure Buddy and I left Mom and Dad at the hotel to rest and pray for a miracle and we set out to do a little trash can excavating.
After searching every bin around the tram stop we headed down into the metro to check the bins down there. It was there in a bin next to an ATM we found a wallet! Not Dad's wallet but this got us thinking about where to look and so going above ground we proceeded to go down the street and check each can by the ATM's to no avail. Seemed that inevitably the wallet was lost and I declared surrender, it was time to give up and go back. So we headed to a tram stop across the street which happened to have two more trash cans. Well why not look since we were here.
First can nothing... second can I reached in to retrieve a black, nasty gum covered wallet. I was sure Dad's wallet was brown or burgundy so didn't have high hopes, but I opened it up to discover indeed this was Dad's wallet!!!! "Praise God from whom all Blessings Flow!" I declared rather loudly. All credit cards, driver license and important pieces of id were still intact. The only thing missing was the wad of receipts Dad had kept from their trip. We assume that the thief had just grabbed the receipts thinking there had to be cash in the wad and tossed the wallet at the next convenient tram stop. Unfortunately for the thief Dad was not carrying any cash for this leg of their trip and Mr. Pick-pocket ended up with nothing.Many praises were lifted up to the Lord for this small miracle. Somewhat like searching for a needle in a haystack God blessed us with showing us how much he cares even about the little things. We managed to salvage our day with some good food and going to the less touristy places of Prague. This little experience reminded me about how Great a God we serve and that nothing is too little or insignificant to bring to God in prayer.
Mom and Dad even got to come to school for a little bit and meet my students. The kids were very excited to have Mr. and Mrs. Robinson come visit.
It was great to be able to share my world with my family.
We began our first day in Milan with going to see some of Leonardo da Vinci's work inlcuding the Last Supper.
