When signing up for the World Race, you're taught to go in without expectations. I like to think that I've done a pretty decent job of that in preparation, as well as in our first 3 months in the field.
However, there comes a point where one does come to expect some of the basic essentials that come along with the Race: spending time with people less fortunate than yourself, experiencing unique things, making new friendships, etc…
One thing I didn't expect when I set out on this journey though, was that the World Race would be home to the worst car accident of my life… and I would be the driver.
Mostly I wanted to write this blog in order to clear up an incident that I'm sure has been the cause of many rumors and speculations. I plan on leaving out certain details, but I would like to be raw and real in the hopes of expressing some of the thoughts that one goes through after a traumatic experience.
I hope that no future Racers find themselves in this same situation, but if so, I truly pray that our experience can be an opportunity for future Racers to learn from.
For a little background of our time in Romania, we have been working with a family that heads up an organization called Barnabas Ministries.
Most of our work this month has been in helping around the house, for a couple with 8 children (3 natural, 5 foster). Obviously, these kids can be quite a handful, but we have loved spending time with them.
We have also done some manual labor in a neighboring village, where Barnabas conducts youth camps every summer.
Naturally, with so many humans running around one small ministry site; transportation can become something of a hassle.
Barnabas has a small fleet of minivans, most of which are standard transmission… which I consider myself quite capable of handling.
On Sunday, our ministry contact Dan chose to drive 7 passengers to church, while I followed, along with 6 fellow passengers in one of their other vehicles, which I was driving.
As we approached the tiny village of Miersig, we were going around a curve, which sadly included a small bridge that regularly gets overrun with a small bit of water.
On this day though, the water was enough to cause our van to hydroplane out of control, and send us into a ditch, where we did two barrel-roles before coming to a stop.
God's favor was clearly over us on Sunday, as the majority of us were relatively unharmed, besides some small scrapes and bruises.
However, two of our passengers were not wearing seat-belts, and suffered moderately severe injuries that will greatly affect their future with the World Race.
In the aftermath, there is a lot to be learned from this experience. The first is to trust in God for complete healing and grace in a situation such as this one. Ever since the moment of the accident, we have had almost non-stop prayer from partners around the world, who have been lifting us before the throne for healing and understanding of why this situation would befall our team.
As often as we desire to ask “why us?”, we need to consider instead to ask, “what next?”. There will never be an earthly explanation for why this would happen to a group of young people in the prime of their lives, setting out to serve the Lord. But as soon as those thoughts creep in, we need to also choose how we are going to handle ourselves; and whether or not we give in to the enemy, and let his plans prosper.
I've also learned a lot about grace from this situation. As the driver and as a team leader, a good portion of the responsibility falls on me for the well-being of my squad-mates. But our hosts, Dan and Maria have been incredibly gracious through this whole ordeal. As soon as they got a chance to talk to me after the accident, they made sure to tell me not to worry about a thing, and that they wanted to get me back behind the wheel as soon as possible, to prevent my nerves from getting the best of me.
It's also difficult to see the victims in so much pain and frustration, knowing that a portion of their injury could have possibly been prevented if I had not been the one driving that day. But they too have been very forgiving, and have shown such determination to get better, and not let any medical suggestions deter them from knowing that God can heal them.
I will have to shoulder this burden for a long time, but thankfully God has blessed me with thick skin, and I'm thankful that if this were to happen to anyone, it was me and not one of my squad-mates.
Trust God in any situation. His ways are often going to be unseen in our limited minds, but even now, we trust that He will bring good from all of this.
