This is a story about a time I decided to trust God AND to believe.
Alissa and I had been in Cape Town for at least 2 days already. We found ourselves having some free time, and a long list of adventures. We had gotten to go to a rugby game, which was awesome by the way. We had climbed Lions head at sunrise, gotten to walk and bike on the boardwalk and we had spent last moments with our former teams.
On this day we decided we wanted to go explore Cape Point, the Cape of Good Hope and Boulder Beach where all the penguins live. So we hailed ourselves an Uber and took off for the train station. Before we even set foot inside, we prayed for our day. Soon we were eating our McMuffins and giving our spare change to those who asked. Before long, we came upon the coast. The different hues of blue in that ocean were breathtaking. I am so glad we took the train.
Upon arrival in Simon’s Town, we hired a driver to take us to all the places we wanted to visit. Soon we were off towards Cape Point. Our driver pointed out many interesting signs, a few of which read “Baboons!” and “Penguins!” We knew penguins were in the area but we had no clue about the baboons.
We asked our driver if we would see baboons and he said “maybe, maybe not.” So we prayed quickly asking God to let us see a baboon. Before long we arrived at the lighthouse known as Cape Point. While parking, we noticed a baboon running across the parking lot. We were so excited, mission accomplished. Thank you Jesus.
We took the funicular up the mountain and took in the amazing scenery. It was beautiful and I just wanted to sit and stare and soak it all in. How can someone not believe in God when they look at His amazing creation! But we were on a time crunch and had to head back down. We met this great couple and traded taking pictures with them. After we finished raiding the gift shop, we found our driver and continued on.
Ten minutes later we were at the Cape of Good Hope, passing many ostriches along the way too. We grabbed a few pictures and decided to move on. We hopped back in the van and soon noticed the traffic was slowing down ahead.
Once we stopped, we realized there were a bunch of baboons in the road. Alissa asked if she could hop out of the van to take pictures, then she got out. Meanwhile I stuck my head out the backseat window to get better pictures. There were so many of them, and even babies.
A few minutes later Alissa asked me to take a picture of her. Moments later, with my face glued to my camera, Alissa said that maybe I should turn around and look in the van. Two huge baboons had climbed through the passenger window and were making their way to the back of the van! Less than a foot from me! Momentary freak out!!
The driver immediately got out of the van and told me to do the same. I was scared being in a confined space with violent creatures, and so after freezing for a second I finally opened the sliding door and hopped out. The baboons were making themselves at home perched on the back seat. Then the driver walked around the van and banged the windows. The baboons finally decided to leave the vehicle. What an encounter.
Needless to say, God over delivered on our baboon prayer.
Once the traffic started moving we began heading to Boulder Beach with the penguins. We asked the driver if we should pray for penguins and he said “please don’t.” LOL So we saw the penguins, they are smellier than you would think. It was really fun watching them waddle though.
Later we hired an Uber to take us home. We were giving our driver a recap of what had happened when we found ourselves behind a car that was giving off terrible exhaust. We said a really quick prayer for the car to leave the road or turn off somewhere. The exhaust was giving us a headache and smelled terrible.
LITERALLY less than a minute later, the car turns off the road.
Our Uber driver turns to us in amazement and we just laughed, saying our God has a sense of humor and that he listens to prayers. When he dropped us off at our hostel, he asked us to pray for him. We did, and it was amazing. He said God listens to us and he just wanted to be prayed for.
The whole days events were perfectly orchestrated so this moment would happen. We prayed and things happened. Because of this we had a story to share with our driver and we got to talk about Jesus. I am just amazed. I learned blatantly that God listens to my prayers and answers them. What an amazing day!
Fast forward 2 days, and my new team and I were heading on a 24 hour bus ride from Cape Town to Middelburg. Our bus left at 10am Tuesday, broke down about 10:30 and we all had to get off and change busses. Between the numerous stops, the intermittent AC, my neighbor leaning on me, sitting on a heater all night and something spilling on my backpack and soaking it, I was just not in a good mood. And I was exhausted.
When we arrived in Johannesburg we frantically grabbed our bags trying to see if we could make our connecting bus. We missed it, and in all the chaos and sleeplessness I realized that I left my little black purse on our first bus. That bus was gone too.
Insert moment of frenzied panic as I royally freaked out!!!
Insert many prayers that it would be returned safely.
You see, it wouldn’t have been a big deal to lose my phone, kindle, bible and journal. The problem was that my passport was in there. How could I be so stupid as to leave my bag on a bus! I mean seriously! So after waiting what seemed like forever, I finally talked with the manager of the bus company and he was able to radio the driver. They had found my bag and were going to send it back to Jo-burg on the next bus. He said it should arrive by 11am.
In the meantime, since we had missed our bus connection, my teammates were trying to get ahold of our contacts and they arranged for us to get picked up at 11am. We laid and rested on the cold floor until then. At 11:15 we packed up all our stuff and met our contacts. We got the vehicles loaded and I prayed as I walked back down to see if my bag was back. I had prayed that it would be there or that it would be walking towards me. As we approached the front of the line to check, I turned around and saw the manager walking towards me with my bag.
I almost burst into tears. He had me check to make sure it was all there, and it was. My phone, kindle, 300 rand, bible, journal, all of it, was not touched. I was so amazed. And the timing was incredible! Thank you Jesus.
I am just so amazed that once again God listened to my prayers and answered me in a literal concrete fashion. He heard me and answered! I was not expecting to have all of these problems and encounters but they have definitely been steps in my trust journey with God. Its amazing.
If this series of events had not happened, I would have to learn this another way. So I am glad. Even though the passport incident freaked me out, I am okay with it. Seeing God’s beautiful creation and having Him answer even our tiny silly prayers was incredible. What trust. Over 3 days, I have now seen 3 separate times that God has answered our prayers immediately. Its just amazing.
I have two words: BLESSED and FAVORED
This whole time in South Africa has been blessed and favored and just simply amazing. I am not even sure of how to feel because this is so crazy. But I love it. And that is all for now. 🙂
