Tuesday, I was woken up by our squad leaders on our first off day to some horrifying news. Another team on our squad had gone on an excursion to watch the sunrise and one of the vans flipped. Four of our squad members and two YWAM workers were in that van and three were injured. There have been multiple surgeries and we are praying for huge miracle healing in their bodies. If you saw the van wreckage, you would be shocked that three people walked away totally fine. God has been so sweet in sparing their lives and already showing off. This week has brought our squad together in worship, prayer and faith to ask big things of an even bigger God.
As you know, the next country on our route is Nepal. By the grace of God, the terrifying earthquake hit two days before we were supposed to arrive in Katmandu. Right now, we are spending the week in India for our make-shift debrief to rest, reflect and process the last three months of our race. My dream would be to enter Nepal and help with disaster relief, but there may not be opportunity to do that due to safety or water and food supply. So, for now, we wait and pray for this nation and the next steps we will take.
During our worship time as a squad after the accident, we were singing “I’ll stand my soul, Lord, to You surrendered, all I am is Yours.” As I sang those words, I realized I have never been this close to tragedy. My friends’ accident was a wake up call for me (which by the way, is so cool that He uses painful things to remind us of His sweetness). As I sang those words, God reminded me that I left America not guaranteed that I would go back. When I sing “all I am is Yours” I’m saying my legs are His, my eyes are His, my voice is His, my hands are His, my emotions are His, my thoughts are His, my future is His, every inch of me is His and He can do whatever He wants with me and I will trust Him. When an event happens in our lives that is life-altering, it’s not the end of the world. It’s not the end of my life. It is God’s plan, continued. It is just another chapter for Him to show off and use to make Himself known and glorified. How cool is it that God entrusts us with pain? He will never give us more than we can handle.
Sunday at church, we sang the song Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus and I decided the last line will be the prayer of my life:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full on His wonderful face
And the things of this world will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.
Our squad is in pain. We are hurting for each other, for our sister that is still healing and cannot finish her race and for the country of Nepal. We are torn in the middle of celebrating the miracles and grieving. May God’s faithfulness and goodness be magnified so that the earthly desires and pain fade away.
We covet your prayers. Please pray for:
*AIM staff as they pray and make a plan for our squad this next month
*Our original Nepal ministry contacts who have not been heard from after the earthquake
*Our squad’s emotional processing of the accident last week, specifically Team Aslan
*Obligatory team changes after four months of being on the same teams
*God’s healing power in our squad members bodies (since launch, we have been attacked physically with emergency appendectomies (x3), bronchitis, mono, pneumonia, ulcers, kidney stones, twisted ankles, torn ligaments, fractured neck, root canals, parasites, etc.)
*Our squad leaders (Teresa, Kaylaynn, Dustin Mick) as they help us process and choose new squad leaders to replace them as they prepare to leave us
