The smell of the woods floating through the morning breeze and the bright beams of light through the trees is how my days would begin! They consisted of the sound of my new family talking amongst themselves, brushing teeth in the woods alongside them, and walks through our BEAUTIFUL campsite that led to a speed walk down the road, hoping to make it to breakfast on time. Our mornings were so tender and full! Full of laughs, slower mornings, but mostly, it was always a good time when gap k was in the room.
Our weeks consisted of sessions on things we would soon need for the field, messages that felt like a heart-to-heart conversation, and the sessions that would challenge us to know the Lord on a deeper level. The grounds of Gainesville did just that during our time there; it challenged us! It challenged me. From the highest of highs, to the lowest of lows, our first month on the race was a month of constant growth.
During our time at training camp, all gap squads take part in a week of domestic missions! As plenty of you know, our domestic missions would take place in Black Mountain, North Carolina.
Our drive up to Black Mountain was full of expectancy and excitement for what awaited us during our time there. Our three hour car ride consisted of coffee (lots of it), Taylor Swift songs that we sung to for hours, sweet conversation, and plenty of sleep. After three hours, we would then arrive in Black Mountain! The winding roads of North Carolina could captivate a person! Never would I have imagined a place full of beauty and splendor, to soon be known as a place of disaster and destruction.
The first night at our cabins, we found out our ministries for the week and became so excited to partner in what the Lord had planned for our week there. My first day of ministry placed me in the streets of Asheville, walking around and evangelizing to people. The Lord had showed up in asheville in signs, visions, words of knowledge and this boldness that felt tangible. Sharing the gospel in Asheville had been one of the heaviest ATL (Ask the Lord) days I had ever experienced, but, one of the most faith building days. The following days consisted of my whole squad serving at Black Mountain Home for Children, cleaning up rooms, tidying up gardens, and sorting clothes at their local thrift store (my personal favorite thing)! We were all more than happy to help an organization like theirs.
That Thursday night, September 26th, we had plans to go to an Excel College event that would eventually be canceled due to bad weather. This caused us to stay in and have the most relaxing but fun night at our cabins. We danced for hours, had a gas station run for snacks for the movies that would be watched later that night, and coffees for the following morning. it was such a sweet night for gap k.
The next morning, September 27th, we were woken up early that morning to one of the staff members telling us to grab some things for the day, that we would need to move to the dining hall, which was uphill, because it was safer for us there as the weather had taken a turn. We spent majority of our morning there as we called family, played the beautiful grand piano that sat in the corner of the room, while some ate cereal accompanied by a card game in one of the back rooms.
We had called everyone into the main room to pray over Black Mountain and the people there, not knowing that rounding everyone up to pray would be the only reason no one was in the side of the building that would be swept away. A short time after we prayed, the mudslide had hit the building we were in. One of my squad mates had yelled as he saw the mudslide coming down the hill and the sounds of trees crashing echoed across the room as we ran out of the double doors. The mud had covered the porch we stood on so quickly as we looked around trying to find a way out. We stood there for a moment feeling helpless, then one of my squad mates had found a way to higher ground, which had been a small parking lot, just enough space for our three vans. All of us ran through the mud as fast as we could, soon reaching the higher ground. We stayed there, in the pouring rain, as we watched the mudslide rip through the once beautiful valley that stood before our cabins. We stayed there for 2 hours before three staff members had found a way out for us. We then had to cross the valley, which was now a river of mud and debris, to the van that sat on the other side of the river.
With the very small picture painted of the day, it seems like it should be “the worst day of our lives,” through my eyes, the Lord paints a very different story. When I look at the events that took place on September 27th, I can’t help but see how evident the faithfulness and goodness of the Father was. To say he has been good undermines what he has actually done.
Almost every other day within the weeks before the landslide, there had been rainbows everywhere. We had a double rainbow at one point, it was CRAZY! even in Black Mountain we had seen rainbow, after rainbow, declaring a reminder for us that he is “faithful to keep his promise!” and that there is “joy in the promise and faithfulness of the Lord!”
While on the mountain I couldn’t help but literally say aloud how faithful the Lord is to keep his promises, because it’s true! He saved us. In a place full of destruction, what should have been death, and sorrow, was actually filled with this immense gratitude that the Lord had been faithful and saved us. All that we had lost was received back in tenfold! Even now, He just continues to replenish us and provide a way in what looked so sparse.
Gap k is a living testimony of the faithfulness of the Lord, His provision, and the power that the joy of the Lord holds. To see a group of people that has lost everything be consumed by the joy of the Lord in a moment like that was captivating. The Lord has marked this family with joy! How beautiful! I wouldn’t want to do life alongside anyone else. I honored to go through joy and suffering with them.
While our first month on the race wasn’t everything we would have expected, I wouldn’t have changed a thing. Lives were changed, hearts were captivated, people gave their lives to Christ, and that alone is enough for me to say that all of this was completely worth the suffering. Thank Jesus for joy within suffering.
“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
Romans 5:3-5
With love!
Hannah
