The early morning air was still cool, just right for a walk… before the scorching Florida sun would discourage me from venturing out later.

No one else was out when I spotted three folded green bills lying near the sidewalk.  Picking up a soggy seven dollars, I wondered if someone had lost the bills the night before. I also noticed I was exactly halfway between two houses. Did one of these people lose the money or did someone lose the money when they were out for a jog or a walk? It was too early to knock on their doors, so I wrote a letter later that day to both addresses asking if they were missing any money.

Five days later, I went to our bank’s ATM. I was thinking about the seven dollars and decided God must mean for me to give it toward a Faith Promise we made at church. Right at that moment, I found five dollars lying on the ground there, too! The tellers inside the bank told me to keep the money. I thought this must be additional money for our Faith Promise, not knowing God was about to show me the eternal value of this money I was finding.

Ten minutes later, I just stepped in the house when the phone rang from the person missing the seven dollars. I drove straight over to her house where Rosanna was waiting for me outside. Her Roman nose and straight black hair said “Peruvian” long before she told me were she was from originally. She was amazed that I would make a point of getting the money back to her, which of course, allowed me to explain that I returned the money because Jesus lives within me.

We talked further.  She began sharing with me about her problems with her adult children.  I soon learned she was moving in three days, so I knew I needed to share the Gospel with her right then.   I asked Rosanna if I could go through “Would You Like to Know God Personally.”  She invited me into her house  and we sat together in her kitchen.   As I started to explain about sin and our separation from God, Rosanna began crying quietly.  She was very eager to have Christ in her heart, so she prayed silently to herself to ask Him in.

The next day, I checked around with friends and then gave Rosanna’s phone number to a woman who lives near Rosanna’s new apartment. Susanna sounded like a “perfect match” so I prayed that Rosanna would grow in her new faith and would be willing to go to church with Susanna.

I’m so glad I didn’t view the seven dollars as a windfall or even as just something to give to the church, but made the effort to return the lost money to its owner. Of course, it was an even greater thrill to see God use this little event to make an eternal difference and bring a lost soul to Himself.