The fact of God's help from Ilona 23.07.2024

This happened in 2020, during the pandemic when many countries were closed, and flights were severely restricted. I was flying from Canada to Russia to visit my grandparents. The journey was extremely difficult and long—I traveled for three days with multiple layovers and long connections. In every airport, I called home to let my family know that I had arrived safely. However, when I landed in Istanbul, I didn’t have time to connect to the Internet and call home. I decided I would send a message from the next airport, even though by then, my family wouldn’t have heard from me for ten hours. When I arrived in the next city in Turkey, a surprise awaited me. I should mention that my layover there was 17 hours. I landed late at night, and by then, it was already dark outside. My tickets were booked in such a way that I had to check in again at the counter in this city. At night, everything in the airport was closed except for one small café, which had Wi-Fi, but only for Turkish residents. (I was very surprised by this fact!) The general airport Wi-Fi could only be used after check-in (I don’t quite remember the details). At that moment, I realized that I, a young woman, had just arrived in a Muslim country and had suddenly stopped communicating with my family. By now, they were probably panicking at home! To make matters worse, the airline had lost my luggage. On top of that, I was on my third day of travel without sleep, and my nerves were beginning to give out. I had no idea what to do. I tried speaking to every airport staff member I could find, but none of them spoke English! Then I remembered that as a child, during a vacation in Turkey, we went on an excursion where we were told that St. Nicholas had lived in this country. We even visited his tomb. I started praying to him with the Akathist. I read the Akathist three times, again and again, asking him for help: "This is your people, you understand them, I don’t know how to communicate with them—please help me!" After finishing my prayers, I decided to try speaking to the airport staff again. And—what a miracle! The employees found a staff member who spoke English! She immediately understood my problem, contacted Istanbul Airport, located my suitcase, and had it sent to me on the very next flight. Feeling overjoyed by how easily the problem had been solved, I decided (though I had no reason to believe it would work) to open my laptop and send my mom an email to let her know I was safe. And again—a miracle! The email sent without an Internet connection! I even received a reply from my mom! That’s how we continued exchanging emails—without Wi-Fi. (I even deliberately tried using Skype, WhatsApp, and Messages—none of them worked.) The words of the Gospel are true: “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20). And indeed—even emails can be sent without Wi-Fi!