“Sa: lenapa ipasege” (“Good morning”), I greeted our friend, Alegele, at our door.

He returned the greeting. “May I borrow your pen?” he asked.

“Sure,” I replied. It wasn’t the first time he had made such a request, and he always faithfully returned things. I handed him the pen and didn’t think any more about it.

A while later, I heard another knock at the door. It was a man telling me his auntie had a fishhook stuck in her thumb and needed my help removing it. The patient was already sitting on our veranda wincing with pain. After examining her thumb, I quickly gathered some supplies and began removing the hook. Soon the hook was out, and I bandaged up the wound. I gave her some pain medicine, and she left a grateful patient.

Later, while I was visiting with a neighbor, Alegele came by and held up the pen. “There is a story behind this,” he said. Then he explained. “Nick, my three-year-old son, found the pen, took it apart, and had the pieces strewn on the ground when I found him. I put the pen back together, but the spring was missing. I took my boys home and opened my Bible and read the text that says ‘Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened unto you.’ Then I knelt down and prayed. After taking a little nap with the boys, I prayed again, then asked Nick where he had thrown the spring. He indicated a spot, and I began searching the area. Finally, my eyes fell on that tiny spring right there.” He pointed to the grassy ground near where we were standing. “I immediately knelt down and thanked God for answering my prayer.” Beaming, he added, “If it had been my pen, I wouldn’t have cared. But since I had borrowed it, I knew God would help me find the missing spring.”

I commended him, “What faith you have to trust God to help you find that spring! That’s the way we need to be with everything in our lives. No matter how big or small the matter, take it to God in prayer!”

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