I Missed the Bus – Here’s What I Learned

Published: 27th of September, 2022

Last Sunday, 25th of September, 2022, I boarded the bus from Campo Verde, Mato Grosso, to Cuiaba – the capital of the state of Mato Grosso. After leaving the bus station, the bus rounded the corner and stopped at a restaurant. The driver then announced, “we’ll stop here for a 20-minute lunch break and then we’ll continue on our journey.”

I was a bit annoyed. I mean, the bus had just taken off. Why a 20-minute lunch break now? I just wanted to get to my destination. But I soon realized that the bus had people from other cities who needed the lunch break.

Although I wasn’t hungry, I disembarked the bus and sat down at a table in the restaurant playing around on Facebook. Within about ten minutes, another bus stopped and passengers disembarked. Now, there were about 40 people in the restaurant. I continued playing on my phone. Then suddenly I looked up and my bus wasn’t outside!

I ran out of the restaurant and saw the bus turning into the main highway! What the hell? The bus had left without me. I ran and tried to wave it down but the driver didn’t see me. At that point I felt distraught and frustrated more so because my haversack was inside the bus. I ran along the road and soon saw a taxi. I waved to it. It stopped. I got inside. “Take this road!” I said desperately. “Fly on the trail, try to catch the bus!” I explained to him what had happened.

The taxi driver was cooperative and understanding. He flew on the trail for about ten miles but the bus was nowhere in sight. It seems the bus had taken the other route since there were two. We drove back to the restaurant. The other bus was just about to leave. I spoke to the driver and explained to him what had happened. I asked him if he could give me a ride to Cuiaba since they were also going there. At first, they were hesitant. But they relented and told me there were empty seats and that I could have one.

All the while to Cuiaba, I thought of filing a strong complaint with the bus service. The driver had made no checks to make sure all passengers had boarded before leaving me at the restaurant, and there were no calls for passengers. They just assumed everyone had boarded! What graceless people!

But I also wondered why divine providence wanted me to miss the bus. I mean, what was God’s plan in all this? Of course, this experience made me wiser. It reminded to always assume that people are potentially incompetent. You can bet I’ll never miss the bus again this way! I’ll always keep checking the time and assuming that the driver might be dumb enough to leave without me. Missing the bus made me more aware and prepared to prevent similar problems in the future. But there was something greater.

When I arrived in Cuiaba, I went straight to the office of this bus service to ask for my haversack. To make a long story short, they gave me my haversack fully intact. But as I was standing in front of the office, a man approached me. He had one hand cut off up to the elbow, and he was saddled with two heavy bags – one on his back and one on his shoulder. He asked me for money to return home. He told me that he came looking for work but he was not successful.

I took the man to the ATM and withdrew 100 reais and gave it to him. I explained that that was all that I could afford, but the truth is it was all that I couldn’t afford. He needed 300, but I prayed that other people would gave him what was missing, because I couldn’t. The truth is, I didn’t have 100 reais to give him, I had drawn it out of my credit line. I was giving him money that I didn’t have, not knowing how I was going to pay it back, but knowing that God would provide.

This is an example of taking a leap of faith. It is an example of trusting in God’s unfailing mercies. If I hadn’t missed the bus, I wouldn’t have met this man who needed my help, and I wouldn’t have been an instrument of God’s unfailing grace to him. I’m happy I missed the bus.