You see beggars along the streets of Madrid every time you pass.
You don’t know how they got there, or why they haven’t gotten out.
You see the man on the metro selling 2 packets of tissues for .50 Euro cents.
You don’t know that he sometimes shares his story to buses full of strangers. He doesn’t have a job. He has a child of 14 years, and he isn’t asking for an empty donation. He wants to give you something in return, “por vavor, ayudame.”
You see the disabled man holding a cup out, head down, he can’t look you in the eyes.
You don’t know that he’s from Romania. He was tricked into coming to Madrid for medical treatment, and upon arriving, his papers were taken from him, and he was sent on the street to beg. When he doesn’t bring back enough money, they beat him. 
These are true stories that I have experienced during my time in this city. The last story of the man was told to me by someone who experienced true miracles through prayer, and I’m going to summarize what she experienced! Going through a hard time financially in her life, one day she found 100 euro’s in her wallet. Honestly, she has no idea how it got there. She didn’t know how to react, and as a faithful woman she just prayed about it and asked God to show her why.
The next day she met with a friend for coffee in an outskirt neighborhood of Madrid, and she saw a man outside who she felt so drawn to, as if she was meant to cross paths with him at that moment in time and needed to talk to him. She ended up buying him a sandwich and and upon giving it to him, he bowed his head to her and said “thank you,” in ROMANIAN. My friend is Romanian. She then lit up with surprise and began to speak to him in his native language to ask how he got in this situation, and that’s when she found out the truth about how he was tricked to come here for medical treatment, and how he is now stuck with no money and no papers in this country only to be abused and a slave to the men who brought him here. Her response was that she didn’t know how to help now, but tomorrow she would return with help. He said okay.
She got home and asked everyone she knew how she should help this man, they all responded with “stay out of it, don’t get involved.” Knowing that the authorities don’t do much about the homeless in this country, she didn’t want to stay out of it. The next day when she returned, this man simply lit up to see her. He said, “so many times do people promise to return with help, but they never do.”
Her and two other friends took him to the hospital because he was simply in such bad condition. The ambulance took him, and they found out where he was going to follow him on the metro! The people working in the hospital were so surprised to see 3 strangers helping a homeless man. They told her that never in their entire careers have they seen such a thing. Coming from me, as an American, I don’t think that should have been such a big deal. It’s not completely new to see people showing kindness to strangers where I’m from… but lately I have been discouraged to see that when I’m walking the kids to school, they look at me like I’m the weirdest person in the world to stop and help someone pick up their papers that are flying away. Culture difference… I suppose.
Anyways, these 3 women spent a lot of time visiting this man. He was using a stick to walk, so they bought him a cane. He has never owned a cane, and when they gave it to him he was purely elated and said, “oh, I feel like a king!” After 3 weeks of using the cane, he miraculously began to be able to walk without it!
It turns out that they also needed to pay to get him papers and to get him a ticket to go back home, and my friend was worried about how they would be able to do that. God has answered her prayer about the mysterious amount of money she found in her wallet, but it still was not enough. When she told her co-workers the story of this man, one of them said, “tell me how much you need and I will give it to you.” Then another said, “no, I WANT TO HELP,” and apparently the second co-worker never wants to help anybody. It is rare and selective for the times that he does.
They ended up getting him the papers and the ticket to return to his home country, and his eyes swelled up with tears as he thanked them. He said that they do not know how much they have done for him. He said, “you are my children.” He said, “I have never had a family, and you have given me that. Every day, I pray for you.”
I don’t believe that there is no God listening to our prayers, and I hope when you see an opportunity to make a difference in someones life, you take it.
Miranda's Manual 