Last summer, I traveled to Milan, Italy, to spend a month doing research. Two days after I arrived, I stopped to purchase a phone card at a newspaper kiosk. As I was paying for the card, I realized that my billfold was gone.
The kiosk attendant and I searched the kiosk thoroughly, but the billfold was nowhere to be found. Not only was I upset by the loss, but it seemed just one more incident in a string of bad things that had happened during this trip.
I called a Christian Science practitioner and asked him to pray with me. I poured out the story, explaining that things had been going awry ever since I had arrived. I admitted that I wanted to return home to the United States because the project seemed doomed to failure, even though it was being supported by a generous grant. The practitioner suggested that we consider the statement "Pilgrim on earth, thy home is heaven; stranger, thou art the guest of God" (Science and Health, p. 254). This reminded me that I could never be outside of God's care, no matter where I was.
Gradually, I began to calm down. I was grateful that I knew the way to the place where I was staying in Milan and could get there on foot, and that I still had my passport and my research documents. As I walked home, I prayed to understand that God was supplying every person in the city with all that he or she needed. I realized that this truth also applied to me, particularly with regard to my research.
No matter where I was, God was with me.
When I arrived home, I began the process of replacing my bank card and credit card. But even as I did this, I recalled that a card containing the address of my residence in Milan was in the billfold, and so I felt confident that it would be returned to me.
Approximately two hours after the billfold had disappeared, I received a call from a German official at Deutsche Bank-Milano. He had found the billfold in the subway and was eager to return it to me. He invited me to his office downtown, where I received the billfold with all the cards and money intact. Incidentally, after that day, my research project also took an interesting and profitable turn that I had not expected.
Iowa City, Iowa
