After the New Chapter Foundation project on Friday a group of us jumped on a train and set off for a weekend adventure. I’m not gonna tell you what the adventure was yet, because I want to tell you about some of God’s amazing provision.
We got to Cape Town and headed to the company we were hiring two cars from so that we could drive to our weekend location. Closed. Lights off, locked up, no answer on the phone. Ah. No answer from the travel agent who got us the cars. This was a problem. We were now stranded in Cape Town, no cars to get us to our location and the last train back to our hostel gone. No hire companies nearby or open.
So we headed to the bus station. There were no trains to where we wanted so maybe buses. As we walked in we saw the shutter for the last of the bus services close. Uh-oh. We had been and were praying for God to provide something. Sat on a bench trying to figure out what to do, whether we should try and get to the airport for hire cars there (which would make our transport cost another half again at least) a man comes up to us and asks what we are doing. We explain our predicament and where we were trying to get to and he tells us he owns a small minibus firm and he can get us a bus and driver in about an hour that will take us there, wait with us and bring us back. For the price the hire cars plus petrol would have been anyway. Wow. Thank you Jesus. Not only that, but those of us designated as drivers now didn’t need to drive through the night and then drive back on little sleep, freeing us from concern, especially those not used to the side of the road (they drive on the left here).
We arrange to be back in an hour and go and get food. Some head over to KFC whilst a handful of us go and buy some of the last food from Royal Pies. We find the KFC guys who decide that KFC is too much (World Race budget is low…) and we all walk back to Royal Pies. Closed. Well that sucks. One of our girls quickly prays the guy would come back and we start talking about what we could do instead and then two minutes later the guy appears. There’s a couple of pies left and he sells them to the two who wanted some, who explain that we are missionaries and what we are doing. He tells us his name, Prince, and gives a business card and we notice that he has a bible verse on the bottom. Cool. This provision again amazes us.
But that’s not the end of it. We head back to the bus station and a few minutes later Prince turns up again – he has a second Royal Pies store right there in front of us. Not only that he proceeds, having amazingly happened to find us, to open up the store and gives us the pies left over from the day and any soft drinks from the cabinets that we want. WOW! Turns out, whilst heading back to the bus station the same girl prayed that God would provide her some free food. Wow. Just wow. Do you want to know what the bible verse on his business card was? Look at the title of this blog. Philippians 4:19. We are blown away.
I’m humbled and challenged in so many ways. This was a trip for our day off, this was nothing to do with the ministries we’re engaged in this month. And yet God considers us enough to richly provide all of our needs. Amazing. If He blesses and provides for us like this in our days off, how much more do we need to seek Him for our ministries?! I hope for more stories like this to share with you as the year goes on.
