How God Provides for His Children

My Croatian friend Tomislav and I visited Israel from June 22 to 29. We flew from Bucharest to Tel Aviv, where we picked up a rental car. On our first day, a Saturday, we attended a one-day seminar hosted by a Christian ministry we were familiar with. We had hoped to meet other Christians, and by the end of the day we had made several new friends.

Three of them joined us for a day trip to Jerusalem on Sunday. On Monday, the same five of us visited Jericho, the Jordan River, the Ein Gedi oasis, and the Dead Sea at Ein Bokek. There, to our surprise, we ran into Erika and Christina, two Hungarian girls we had met at the seminar.

That evening, two of our friends left for Eilat in southern Israel, while the rest of us drove back to Tel Aviv with Erika and Christina. The next morning, all five of us went to Jerusalem again. Around noon, Christina and our male friend decided to stay there, while Erika joined Tomislav and me for another afternoon at the Dead Sea. On the way, we stopped for lunch at a roadside restaurant and visited the Masada fortress.

All day, I had felt that God wanted me to help Erika financially. Then, as I floated in the Dead Sea at Ein Bokek that evening, quietly talking with God, a clear thought came to me: I should give her all the money in my wallet.

But I wanted to be sure the thought came from Him. A bright McDonald’s logo on a nearby mall had caught my eye while I was floating, and it gave me an idea for a sign. If either Tomislav or Erika suggested going to McDonald’s after we left the beach, I would know the thought was from God.

Not long afterwards, I got out of the water and stretched out on a beach chair next to Tomislav. Barely a minute later, he suggested going to the mall after our swim to use the free Wi-Fi and catch up with folks back in Romania. Trying to hide my grin, I asked where in the mall he wanted to go.

“We can go to McDonald’s, or maybe somewhere else.”

When I told him about the sign I had set before the Lord, we both laughed and marveled at how God works. Then Tomislav told me he had only been to McDonald’s three times in his entire life. It wasn’t somewhere he would normally think of going!

Looking back, I can see that God had been guiding me long before I got into the water. That morning, on our way from the Airbnb to the car, we had stopped at a supermarket, where I bought water and withdrew 500 shekels from an ATM. As we walked towards the car, which I had parked a few blocks down the road the night before, we passed another ATM. For some reason, I felt compelled to withdraw more money, something I hadn’t done on the previous days. Most ATMs in Israel limited withdrawals to 500 or 600 shekels, but this one allowed up to 1,500. I withdrew another 1,000.

There was one more detail. At McDonald’s, I ordered our meals through one of the brand-new self-service kiosks and paid by card without thinking. I would normally have paid cash. Only afterwards did I realize that paying cash would have meant spending some of the money I had decided to give Erika. When I counted what was in my wallet, I found 950 shekels and 48 dollars—about 320 dollars altogether.

Erika was very moved when I gave her the money. She told us she had been out of money for several days and couldn’t afford a plane ticket back to Hungary. Someone had been letting her stay for free, but that could only be a short-term arrangement. Now she had enough to book her flight.

Before coming to Israel, she had worked for a while in England, then felt strongly called to leave her job and move to Israel. What she was doing there is a story for another time. I hadn’t known she couldn’t afford to get home. God knew, and He had guided me through the day so I could help her.