What I’m about to share with all of you, I want to share to tell you how miraculous it all was. In the end, it’s God’s story and for me to not share would be taking away from Him.
On May 31st, Thursday morning, a couple of my teammates and I awoke at 2:15am to people screaming and shouting, chaos and panic, loud desperate crying, noises that sounded like explosions and shots. We didn’t understand the language so we didn’t know what was happening.. There have been government invasions in this area (as I talked about in previous blog) to put pressure on Christians, we thought that maybe another civil war/fight/invasion broke out again..
I had a hard time falling asleep and I even thought, “I feel like I’ll be up all night. I might as well get up and do something productive.” I got a prompting from the Holy Spirit to be praying and not being sure on what to pray about, I spent my time in bed praying in tongues. I had a thought cross my mind that I should go outside and pray in the laundry area. The laundry area is at the back of the guest house, jets out like a deck and is enclosed by a wired fence. If I would’ve followed that prompting, I would’ve seen the beginning of it all… But, God is good, faithful and persistent.
We had been sleeping in the basement of our hostel and we had a couple small windows but not ones that allowed us to see what was happening on ground level. All we saw was a red/orange-ish glow. We’re still trying to come out of a sleeping state. People would run past our windows screaming and shouting and we didn’t know if we should hide or not. Leave the flashlight on or not.. not understanding a single word.
I was frantically looking for my contacts or glasses. Usually they’re at my side but we had begun some packing the day before and I had put them away. It was dark and seeing without my contacts or glasses flustered me quite a bit. I lost one of my 5 senses. It scared me some that I was about to go out into the unknown (at this time we were all still thinking – war), in the night, without really seeing well.
Meanwhile, a couple of my teammates were brave and stepped outside to see what was really happening… so far with us all thinking there may be guns firing outside. That’s some courage!
Then, a neighborhood friend found us and banged on our door telling us to run cause the building next to us was on fire and our building started catching fire on the roof. Half of my team was in a room next to us. Their room had no windows and they all sleep with their earplugs in. Out of all nights, that night they forgot to lock their door. If it would’ve been locked, with their earplugs in, who knows how long we would’ve been knocking for to get them to wake up. We grabbed our documents and any belongings within reach and ran out. As we ran out, I grabbed my small daypack that had my documents and electronics and behind my pack, I saw my contacts and glasses… I was so relieved! We get up the stairs but the gates were locked. Adrenaline high at this point, we threw our stuff over the gate and began to climb over. In reality, I can’t even do half a pull up!!
As described in my previous blog, the town we lived in is on a mountain so the majority of buildings are about 3-5feet apart-just wide enough for stairs to access basement level living. And when we came out, this is what we saw. I had never seen fire so big. The sounds were sickening. Our hotel is the orange building with green window frames to the right of the fire. As we stood watching the fire, I was trying hard to have faith the fire wouldn’t take anything we owned. But hard as I tried, I had already begun mentally preparing what I will do as my clothes and belongings were inside thinking all I’ll have left is what I was wearing and my small pack.
I messaged my family, and a few other people, asking for prayer. My team and I then got together in the street and began praying! The hostel workers (who also lived there), 2 ladies, saw us praying and asked if they could join. They just wept and trembled and cried out to God so fervently as they watched the potential destruction of their livelihood. The wind was strong and was blowing the flames right towards the hostel. As my team, family and others were praying, I remember looking up at the fire while praying and thinking, “Wow!! The fire is actually getting smaller!!”
The firefighters fought the fires for about 5 hours. When it became light out and we saw the damage done, there is no other explanation other than the fact that here HAD to be angels standing between our room and the next building. There was fire literally about 5 feet from my bed and I was sleeping. What we were looking at did not make any sense in the science world.. the lives of 2 people were taken by the fire with some more that got burned.
Altogether, 6 buildings were affected. One burned on the side, two 3-level buildings completely demolished to the ground. The next building, about 40-50ft from us, just the concrete/brick frame standing and the building next to us, top portion gone and our building… it was next but, just the roof was affected a bit!… meanwhile, across the street; the buildings had paint peeling, windows shattered, window shutters and pots were melted from the heat of the fire. Our walls were good, not even any soot. Windows whole. Nothing melted. Just a bit of roof damage.
In the morning, we got placed into a sister hostel up the mountain. Our hostel was filled with smoke and at that time firefighters were still fighting the fire… only later that day were we able to go in and get the remainder of our belongings. Here’s another miracle in this; during the fire, on our way out, one of my teammates ran into the laundry area to grab a shirt that was gifted to her but she ran back out cause it was filled with smoke. The night before, I hung up my laundry to dry so it was out during the fire. When I got my clothes back, not a trace of any scent of smoke was in my clothes!!! It reminded me of the story of Daniel and his friends when they were thrown into the fire pit but came out unharmed and not even smelling of smoke!
I took a walk later to see the aftermath. I began to wonder about the shop owner that didn’t make it out of the building that was just a concrete/brick skeleton standing. As I was thinking about him and scanning the scene, my eyes landed on what used to be his building and inside it, I saw a cross in the rubble…
I walked away feeling so humbled and so loved by God!! His grace is so perfect and His love so deep. No matter what, He is so faithful and protected us so! When I think of this night, I see Him in it so deeply. In the little things and in the undeniable “that was only God” moments…
