We Need a Bus - A Story of Provision, Prayer, and Trust

We Needed a Bus

After that first CAST season, we quickly realized something important. We had outgrown our church bus.

As with so many things in CAST, I prayed. Then I became overwhelmed. There were so many details to manage: mats, blankets, laundering, disinfecting, screening processes, and now transportation. The bus became the thing I kept saying out loud to anyone who would listen. We need a bus.

One night, I prayed deeply and honestly. I wrestled through the weight of leadership, serving CAST, and serving Him. CAST always has needs. I reminded the Lord, as if He needed reminding, that we had forty dollars in the bank account and no bus. Forty dollars would not even fill a bus with fuel.

I reminded Him that He parted the sea, that He created it all. You get the picture. Then I shifted my prayers to praise. I thanked Him for everything He was already providing, and I went to bed.

At our first summer planning meeting, a pastor showed up who had never attended before and has never attended since. He opened the meeting by saying, “I am here to give you a bus. A full-size diesel bus.”

God is so amazing. I was completely undone.

My prayer had been for a bus, for the use of a bus, and that is exactly what God provided. That wonderful old bus served CAST faithfully for nine winter seasons before we were able to bless another ministry with it.

Of course, one answered prayer led to the next set of details. Fuel. Oil. Drivers.

A coordinator from one of our CAST churches wrote a grant on our behalf, and by August we were awarded a five-thousand-dollar transportation grant. Then again the next year. And the next.

Eventually, the retired insurance agent turned grant writer gently told me that we had gone to that well a few times. So what do you do. You pray.

The following week, I checked the CAST mailbox at my church. Inside was an envelope with my name on it. Inside that envelope was a folded personal check for five thousand dollars. No ask had gone out. No campaign had been launched. But the Lord knew the need.

He meets all our needs. I believe that.

Over the years, we have received donations and been awarded city grants and church denomination grants to cover supplies, mats, blankets, food, laundering, and transportation. One church. His church.

God’s hand is upon CAST. All our needs are put to prayer, and each one becomes a God story. I have had the privilege of witnessing those stories firsthand, again and again.