I live in a city in the south of Brazil, and during the summer the days and nights are scalding. To ease the heat, since I do not own an air conditioner because of structural problems in the apartment I live in, we bought an air circulator and stayed with it for three years.
On the last day of February, my husband called me saying that the circulator was not working, the three propellers had broken. I was very sad because we were not counting on this expense at the time, and my husband is unemployed. But since we could not be without a fan, we went to the supermarket to buy a new one, always trusting God's grace for everything!
This time we bought one made of aluminum, which seemed to be better and more durable than the first. We were relieved to have got a new one, and everything was fine. On February 9th, when we were getting ready for bed, my husband went to turn on the new air circulator and, to our surprise, it did not work.
We tried several times, changed outlets/adapters, and nothing happened. You can only imagine how frustrated we were, for besides being new, it was expensive. We remembered that here in Brazil, there is a period for exchange a product. I called the customer service center of the supermarket, and they informed me that the deadline is only seven days and in our case, eight days had already passed. However, they told me to go to the store and try to talk to the manager.
We packed the fan at the same time (it was 9:37 p.m.) and went to the supermarket on foot. My husband was very sad! I prayed all the way, asking God to help us with what to say and, and above all, to do His will. We arrived at the supermarket and were attended by the supervisor who looked at the fan and the invoice, and told us that the deadline had passed. It was not possible to make the change. He continued to say we would have to send it to the technical assistance (which would take at least 30 days to return).
I kept praying silently, when she called the manager to come and assess the situation. We explained what happened, and he told us the same thing: you have to take it to the technical assistance and, if it does not work, bring a report from them that we will make the exchange. My husband wanted to argue with the boy, but I calmed him down and thanked the manager for his kindness, and we decided to leave the supermarket.
I was still praying, thanking God because I knew He was taking care of everything. We were already in the parking lot, when I heard a voice shouting behind us,"Lady, lady, come back, we'll make the exchange for you!" It was the manager who came running after us. God is immensely loving! He explained to us that this is not the company's policy, but that he would do it anyhow. I asked them to test the old fan so they could verify that it was damaged, they tested it and gave us a new one, which was also tested. We returned home so happy. And the most important thing for me is that this was a testimony to my spouse, who is not a Christian. He knew that I was praying on the way, and when we left the supermarket with the new fan, he recognized the grace of God to us.
I'm so grateful for God's love! Let us never cease to speak of His goodness and His deeds, Who cares for us in ALL things!
Sister Fernanda
Brazil