Trusting God for Food and Shelter in India
A group of Stellenbosch students headed to India on a mission trip recently. The group divided into smaller groups of four. One of these groups, who dubbed themselves the ‘Mumbai Men’ felt led to not take money to India and to look for a ‘man of peace’ as described in Luke 10 when Jesus sent out the 72.
A MIRACLE AT THE START
Verner, one of the Mumbai Men, told of a miracle that occurred before the trip even really began. Stefan, also part of their team had not received his e-visa for India when they were due to leave Cape Town and soon a this message was sent on the prayer Whatsapp group:
Two out of the three groups will be flying out today. 6 of us will be having our lay over in Kenya and the other two is Addis Ababa. Then, final destination, Mumbai.
Also a pretty urgent prayer request, one of the gents is still waiting for his India visa. His flight is in 2 hours. Please pray with us that he will be able to board his flight. 
Stefan boarded his flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg with Jam. The two of them were travelling together while Verner and Joshua were travelling to India on a different flight. When it was time for Stefan and Jam to check in to the flight from Joburg to India, which went via connecting flight in Ethiopia, Stefan’s e-visa had still not come through.
He was unable to check in, so he and Jam left the desk and went to pray for about thirty minutes. When they returned the check-in desk had closed. They thought they were both going to miss their flight. They spotted someone who worked at the airport and asked for help. This guy took them past security to immigration and printed their boarding passes.
Just before they got on the plane an official asked for their e-visa and Jam showed her his e-visa on his phone and then Stefan showed a random email on his phone which she glanced at and ushered them through. So the two of them got onto the flight to Ethiopia without Stefan having his e-visa for India. This wasn’t meant to be possible. Then one hour before the flight from Ethiopia to Mumbai his e-visa came through.
Then, from Mumbai Airport, a short video and this text was sent on the WhatsApp group: “The visa came through – all 4 Mumbai Men have touched down in India!“
RELYING ON GOD TO PROVIDE
Verner describes arriving in India without food or money. “The first day was particularly tough. We had one meal which was street food and ended up sleeping on the street in Mumbai with some homeless people at the train station that night.”
At that stage they were all doubting and wondered if it would be possible to live like this for 11 days. They discussed whether they should spend just a little bit of money but decided to hold out.
“We were praying every second to God to provide for us. I was on the verge of tears, I was so mentally broken to see how much we had to depend on God.
The next morning we woke up and I sat praying. ‘Lord do I not have enough faith that we can do this for 11 days, or must I swallow my pride and spend a little money even though we had said that we wouldn’t spend anything?”
As he was praying, Verner looked up and saw a guy. They made eye contact and smiled at each other. He started chatting to the guys.
“He said that he was going to buy us a train ticket to this touristy place, Churchgate, and then that we should meet him back at the train station at 4pm and he’ll give us food.
It was so cool to see how God guided us in this decision because I really didn’t know what we were going to do.
When we met the guy again he took us to an all-you-can-eat buffet. Two of the guys drank about 8 litres of water between them and we all ate until we were full.
The man then took us back to his community, which was in the slum on the airport wall. He was an atheist but he introduced us to his community and they were all Christian
They took us into their home and over the next few days we really built a relationship with them and they gave us so much food. I think we all picked up weight when we all expected to lose weight, which was crazy! We also never had to spend another night on the street.
We spent two nights in a hotel that someone paid for and we stayed in an empty flat for the rest of the days. It was amazing to see how the Lord provided in abundance for us.
There were numerous times that people gave us food or water or a little money over the trip. It was amazing how God provided.”
