**Please watch the videos where they are placed throughout the story. I have them there to help give you a visual of what was happening. Get comfy and enjoy!**
It was Thursday, May 23rd. The plan was for me, Chelsea, Jonathan, Codi, and Shannon to leave our hostel at 2 PM for Ba Na Hills, which was about a 45-minute drive. It was a beautiful day, sunny, and not a cloud in the sky. We had been talking about going to the “hand bridge” for almost a week and the more we talked about it, the more nervous I felt. I knew if I didn’t go that I would regret not seeing this incredible bridge that people came from all over the world to see, but I also knew that going meant I would have to face my biggest fear.
See, I have this irrational fear of falling to my death. Maybe it stems from the childhood trauma of trying to fly multiple times and failing or when my dad thought that the Tower of Terror at Disney World was just an elevator ride and put me on it at the age of 5. It’s hard to say, really, but the thought of falling from anything paralyzes me. I don’t get near ledges or lean on balcony railings and I feel physically sick just watching someone skydive or bungee jump (If you don’t believe me, just ask my mom about the time we watched Skyscraper with The Rock!).
In order to see the “hand bridge”, (this is what Westerners call it, it’s actual name is the Golden Bridge) we had to ride a cable car to the top of a mountain. You may be thinking of a cable car like the one you ride to the top of Stone Mountain, (I’ve always refused to get on that thing, FYI), but NO. This cable car is the LONGEST and HIGHEST nonstop cable car in the WORLD! It is 3.13 miles long and the tallest point is 4,230 feet high. I wasn’t excited about getting on this cable car at all! Little did I know that God was about to use my biggest fear to remind me of His power and His faithfulness…
We all met up at our hostel and ordered a grab. The car ride there was filled with good conversation, laughs, and a lot of butterflies in my stomach. Once we arrived, we had to take a shuttle to the ticket office and up until that point, there hadn’t been a cloud in the sky. A storm came out of nowhere, and along with the arrival of the clouds, my anxiety kicked into high gear. If I didn’t want to get on the cable car when it was sunny, I definitely didn’t want to get on it in the middle of a thunderstorm!
(The last remaining rays of sunlight on our shuttle ride)
After buying our tickets, we had to walk at least a half-mile to get to the cable car entrance and the further we walked, the darker the sky got. When we finally made it to the entrance, a huge crack of thunder hit. I asked the attendant if it was safe to board the cable car in a thunderstorm and she assured me that it was (I was NOT convinced) and quickly ushered me through the turnstile. Now, let me remind you that cable cars don’t stop moving for passengers to board them, they just slow down slightly. I wasn’t at the front of my group, so when one of my teammates jumped on, I didn’t have time to think about not getting on and made the grave mistake of following them. At that moment, I could hear my mom asking, “If your friends jumped off of a bridge, would you jump too?” Well, Mama, the answer seems to be yes!
Within seconds, the weight of my decision to endure this ride was sitting heavy on my chest, literally. I was trying to remain calm on the outside but on the inside, I was FREAKING OUT. The first few minutes of our ride I was paralyzed with fear. Codi, who isn’t fazed by things like hanging from a wire at 4,000+ feet in a thunderstorm was standing up and taking it all in! I told her that she would need to take photos and videos because I couldn’t move. I probably told her that she was crazy, but the truth is, I’m amazed by her.
My friends knew that I was facing my biggest fear and when the storm came up, I jokingly told them that God was trying to teach me something. After being on the cable car for a good 5 minutes the sky became darker and it started to downpour. I was doing a good job of pretending I was okay on the outside but on the inside, I was terrified and kept asking the Lord why He would put me through this.
Then it got real. A flash of lightning struck about a hundred yards from us and the loudest crack of thunder that I’ve ever heard followed suit. Most of the others joined me for a moment of panic, and then they realized we were fine and calmed down. Codi was upset that she didn’t get the lightning on video so she pulls out her phone and starts recording in case another one hits. Unfortunately for me, she didn’t have to wait very long for her wish to be granted.
Another flash of lightning came barreling down but this time it was closer and it struck the wire that we were hanging from. We could see it, we could hear it, and we could feel it. A few seconds after it hit the wire we were abruptly stopped. If you listen closely in the video, you can hear my facade of being okay slowly slipping away. I was terrified and the only thing I knew to do was worship.
I opened my worship playlist, hit shuffle and the first song to pop up was Fall by The Belonging Co. I tell people all the time that the Lord likes to play practical jokes on me. This was one of those times…
I’m not sure how long we had been hanging there before the abrupt stop caught up to us but it wasn’t long. The wires had been jolted from stopping us so quickly and as a result, it caused us to start bouncing but none of us realized that. We dropped a good 20 feet and I just knew that was it for us, I thought we were about to die. The only thing I remember thinking at that moment was, “Lord, I can’t believe you’re going to let me die like this!”.
At one point, Jonathan pointed at me and said, “This is because of you, the Lord is trying to teach you something!”, and I yelled back at him, “I know He is but I’m too terrified to focus on what He’s trying to tell me!”. He was right, the Lord was teaching me something, I just wouldn’t find out what it was until our way back down the mountain.
Once I realized we weren’t actually falling to our deaths and we had started moving again, I put all my focus into worship and prayer. The very first lesson I learned this year was to fight fear with worship, it’s the only thing that brings me peace during the panic. I spent the rest of our ride talking with the Lord and singing worship music with my eyes closed. The storm ended as fast as it began.
After the longest 25 minutes of my life, we made it to the top of the mountain and the first thing out of my mouth was, “This mountain is now my home, tell everyone I love them, you’re going to have to leave me behind”. Shannon agreed to live in the jungle with me so I had peace about it…
We were on a mission to find the bridge. We had to walk a bit, ask for directions, and take a train up another mountain which I found to be a much more enjoyable ride.
Let’s go back in time about a week and a half before this. The Lord had been doing some things in my life. I spent the day fasting and spending time in His word and thinking about my future. I had been thinking about how I want to be a foster parent and the Lord spoke to me and told me that I would one day adopt a teenager. I cried tears of joy thinking about this child and realized that he or she was already in the world somewhere. I prayed that God would place someone in their life to love them and tell them about Jesus until they came into my life.
