Wow, this week has been crazy, wonderful, terrifying, full of laughter, and full of tears. The only thing that I can say is “God is so incredibly good”. A lot of times, it is so easy to focus on the bad things that happened in your life, but I can tell you that it is so much more fulfilling if we choose to celebrate God’s goodness in the midst of chaos.
This week, my squad traveled to North Carolina for a week of domestic missions. As many of you already know, our squad narrowly escaped a hurricane that hit Asheville and Black Mountain on Friday. However, I want to tell the story in a way that highlights the miraculous provision of God instead of simply focusing on the terrible event itself. Our ministry had gotten canceled on Friday due to the flooding so our squad decided to sleep in and have a late breakfast. We, however, got a knock on our door at 8:00 am from one of the guys working with the children’s home we had partnered with. He told us that we should move up to the dining hall instead of staying in our cabins because of falling trees. Many of us just grabbed a backpack with a few things for the day, fully expecting to come back. However, at around 9:10 am our squad found ourselves running for our lives out of that building. A tree had fallen on it and a mudslide soon destroyed half of the building and flooded the whole camp. We all got out safely but were trapped for 2 hours standing in the rain, waiting for help. Once the water had subsided a little, some guys from the children’s home tied a rope across the river and helped us to safety. We all got out and were taken to the children’s home where there was warmth and comfort. We stayed there for about 6 hours and were then transported to a hotel where we stayed the night. The next morning, a girl from our squad’s dad and his friend came and drove us back to Gainesville, Georgia. Many of us thought we were not going to make it out alive and called parents and siblings, saying goodbye.
However, through this terrifying experience, God has shown himself to be the master of the universe. He showed up again and again, orchestrating everything so that we all came out alive and well.
- The cabin that we would have all been eating breakfast in if we hadn’t been told to move is completely destroyed. We would have all been in there when the mudslide hit and we would have been killed.
- Before the mudslide and tree hit, our leaders gathered us for prayer which brought us all together in the half of the building that wasn’t destroyed. If we hadn’t done this, some people would have been hanging out in areas that got destroyed and they would have been killed.
- There was a disaster relief specialist that knew how to get us safely across the river and to safety.
- The AIM disaster relief team was told that there was no way to get to us because the roads were washed out. However, there was a prison near the children’s home and the gates were wide open, allowing them to get to us and get us to safety.
- Random strangers from the hotel, loaned their trucks to come get us out of the children’s home and to the safety of the hotel.
- No one was hurt, besides a sprained ankle!!
- We were evacuated and safely back in Georgia within 72 hours of the disaster happening!!!
- After we got back, we heard countless stories of people waking up in the middle of the night Friday night, feeling the urgency to pray.
It is impossible to tell this story without highlighting the goodness of God and his obvious provision for me and my team. Everyone lost most of their stuff in the mudslide, BUT within 24 hours of the disaster, we had raised $40,000 to replace the items that we had lost. God really was with us every step of the way!!
I also don’t want this disaster to define the whole week. Earlier in the week, my squad got to participate in various forms of ministry including helping those in need and spreading the gospel. We got to go out in the town of Asheville and share the gospel with strangers, help clean up a garden, deep clean the children’s home, sand tables, clean up the college, and so much more. It is so cool how we got the opportunity to plant seeds in people ´ s hearts right before a disaster struck. God put us in that town to share Jesus and give the opportunity for people to be saved, right when they needed it most.
I would ask you to pray for healing for my squad as this incident obviously left a lasting impact on people ´ s emotions. We still leave for Guatemala on Monday, so please pray that our hearts will be prepared to share God ´ s love. In addition, pray that we will be able to use this opportunity to share how God has saved us and how he continually shows up for us when we need it most. Jesus says that he will be with us wherever we go, and he obviously was not lying about that!!
