Dear Parents of P-Squad,
If you haven’t realized yet, God has great trust in us. From a parents standpoint I can see how it is scary as hell. Your child is oversees in a third world country where there is danger all around. I can’t fathom what it is like to wake up and turn on the news and see that the exact location where you child is has suffered from a massive earthquake. I can’t imagine what it would be like to not know if your child is okay or not. I can’t imagine the thoughts going through your head. All I know is that it has to be scary.
What we went through was a traumatic experience. The ground you stand on is always suppose to safe. On May 12th not only did we see and feel the ground move, but we seen mountains move. We heard screams as houses fell. We had to walk away from homes knowing that families were in them and crushed.
I don’t honestly know how to begin to process what we went through that day. My heart broke and for a second all I thought was “God, how can you do that to these people after they just went through this.” It hurt to see and hear the devastation. I questioned God for a brief second. A brief, brief second. Then I seen Jesus everywhere.
It is mind-blowing to me that the Lord has entrusted this squad to go through this experience. The first meeting I had with my team I told them everything we been through so far was only the start of what was to come. I didn’t know the Lord had an earthquake in mind for us. The Lord, again, gave this squad peace about the situation.
The Lord did something amazing. We arrived in Nepal not knowing how to relate to these people. We knew their hearts were broken but we couldn’t relate to what they went through. On May 12th the Lord changed that. He broke our hearts for what broke theirs. We felt His power as the earth violently shook below us. Everything around shook except our faith. The only thing that crashed around me was my unknowing of how to relate to the Nepali people.
God moved mountains in Nepal that day. God continued to destroy the high places of all the idols. God had us in mind to be here and all He asked was for us to love on these people. That day of the earthquake I can honestly say I seen Jesus in every member of my squad. Even as some of them wept, I seen Jesus in them.
The night of the earthquake and the night after I slept well knowing that the Lord had His hand of protection over all of us. My faith was in the Lord without a doubt. We became refugees in a third world country within a matter of minutes, but the Lord never stopped providing for us. We ate dried noodles, found our bathroom in the woods, and slept atop plastic pallets. For those two days that was our “normal.”
I haven’t felt the “normal” since leaving that mountain top on Thursday morning. I haven’t felt stress this entire trip until Thursday evening. I watched this squad fall apart in font of my eyes because our “normal” was destroyed. Phone calls back home left this squad with fears and anxiety. Some of our parents worries were transferred onto squamates. You could see it in their faces.
As a leader I had to take on the concerns of this squad with the other leaders. Parents back home were calling headquarters consumed with fears for our safety. We were home (in Kathmandu) and all we wanted to do was be back in our beds where we felt safe. The one thing we all wanted was snatched away from us. Parent called headquarters, headquarters called squad leaders, squad leaders called team leaders, and we had to break the news to the squad.
Parents, I beg you to place your trust in the Lord. As leaders, we have prayed and prayed about this situation. This house was inspected the day of the earthquake by a professional and they said it was safe. The Lord said it was safe. We feel safe here. We can actually rest here and enjoy it being our “normal.”
We have been through a traumatic situation and felt peace afterwards. I didn’t feel stressed until we came back to our house Thursday and were told Thursday night that parents didn’t want us sleeping here. Each and every leader prayed and asked our teams how they felt and they all said they wanted to stay.
Instead each day we find ourselves packing up our belongings in the morning and night to go sleep in a field where we don’t feel safe. “Normal” has been taken away from us. We aren’t resting because we can’t. We aren’t processing because we can’t. All I feel is frustration at this point.
Parents, I know your concerns come out of love. With humor at this point I can say I can tell we are all well loved by you all. I just ask that you realize that we are adults even if some of us don’t act like it sometimes. We have discernment about situations. This house is safe, it has been inspected, and it is a newer building. Please have faith in the Lord and trust that He will keep us safe.
When I was in India before I would leave Jireh home every night I would hug the kids and they would say “may you sleep with angels.” The Lord has His angels around us, and I do not doubt that. Please, please, please, trust in the Lord that He will protect us in this house.
All we want is to be able to go back to laying our heads down here at night….
(and as a suggestion, this is when you tell AIM that you are trusting in the Lord that He will keep us safe in this house. pleaseeeeeee)
