It has taken me a week to write this and I'm not sure how it will turn out but here is my attempt to get this into words….
After leaving India and a "fun" two days of being on a bus we arrived in Nepal and to our living place for the month. The plan was to have a day of rest and then head to a village for a week or so where our contact has been working. The village was a 12ish hour bus ride away and then a 4ish hour hike because the bus couldn't get us all the way there. Everyone was super excited, including me even though deep down I was really not looking forward to the hike. We packed our stuff, left with our contact's wife, and we were on our way. We left Oct 18th in the afternoon and would arrive early early the next morning. This bus ride was one of the craziest bus rides I have been on yet, but none of us could have imagined what was to come. It was really hard to get any sleep with all the bumps, turns, and random stops. At some point in the middle of the night by the grace of God I was finally able to fall asleep. Next thing I know I am smashed up against the seats in front of me. The wierd thing is that I felt no pain so I thought I was dreaming. It was the wierdest feeling. Eventually I heard the most awful screaming and I had a bad pain across my face and knew it was real. We stopped and right away everyone started checking on each other. Long story short everyone was alive praise the Lord. Me and my teammate Jenny had cuts on our heads, Kate had a cut on the inside of her mouth, and everyone else with me was bruised and banged up a little. Come to find out it was around 4 am and our bus driver had fallen asleep and hit a parked bus going what we think around 50-60mph without touching the brakes. Ouch. It was a miracle that nothing worse happened to us. There is example after example of things and ways God totally protected us. From people switching positions right before the wreck that if they hadn't they would have seriously been hurt, from being asleep so we weren't as tense, to sitting in the back of the bus even though the front had more leg room, to hitting a bus instead of going off the mountain, and so on. I was amazed and it was totally a God thing that out of the 12 of us not one single person panicked, at least on the outside. I know for me I had a unexplainable, undescribable peace about everything that I know came from the Lord. Everyone was super calm and everyone started doing whatever they could to help. Praying, bandaging wounds, getting all our stuff together, calling AIM and figuring out a way to get to the hospital….everything that needed to be done. For me, who couldn't do much because I was injured, it was an incredible thing to witness and it made me love everyone even more. Some how we managed to get an ambulance to get to the hospital. This hospital was insane. I am so thankful for my teammate Jenny who had a similar injury because we tried our hardest to make the best of the situation and even found things to laugh about even though we were hurt. There were dirty needles and bloody rags on the ground and the people who got really hurt on the bus they had laid on the ground stitching them up right there in the hallway. I guess that's what you get when you are in the middle of nowhere and in a foreign country. We stayed there for awhile but they wouldn't even look at our cuts (which I am soooooo thankful for now). Someone bandaged us at the site and the doc said if there was blood gushing out of it then he would be concerned and look at it and that if we got a fever to take a cold bath. What a joke. I'm telling you so many things happened this day that were such a gift from God. He was looking out for us and never left our side. Out of nowhere a van showed up to drive us to the next hospital which was about 3 hours away. But not before the whole town showed up to see what was going on and take pictures of the injured white people. {A funny side note: I really had to use the bathroom and knew I wouldn't make it the 3 hours. This hospital had the worst and most disgusting bathroom I have seen yet on the race but I really had to go so it didnt matter. Well it was a squatty obviously and I have bad balance anyways but add a head injury and it's bad news my friends. I totally slipped and landed in I don't even want to tell you what. Luckily I had clothes to change into or it would have been a long day haha. What can you do but laugh about it?} So….we get to the next hospital and again God totally provided. We walk in and the first thing we see are two white female doctors speaking English…well actually they were interns from Holland who had only been there for a week. But they were such a blessing. They totally took care of us. They constantly checked in on us and made sure we were getting taken care of and helped speed the process along. I can't tell you how much of a comfort it was to have them there. They got off 30 minutes before we were released. Crazy huh? I had to get stitches for the first time in my life. I was real nervous and when Jenny and I walked into the stitching room (because that's what it was. A room with 5 beds where they did all stitches) there was a small child screaming his head off. That did not help. But it ended up being fine. Hurt a little but I was just thankful to be alive so it didn't even matter. It cost me less than 10 dollars to get stitches and get the meds I needed. I found it funny because after the guy looked at my cut he gave me a list of things he would need and then I had to go to another room and buy the stuff for him. Everyone else got checked out, some got xrays just to make sure everything looked okay and thankfully no one had major injuries and besides the two of us with stitches everyone was just really sore and bruised. Almost everyone got some pretty sweet bruises. This was by far the craziest experience of my whole life but God is so so good.
Through this experience I saw the many ways that God protected us, looked after us, put the right people on our paths, and loved us. During the van ride to the second hospital my heart was broken for how much I really need him and how desperate I am for him. How I am absolutely nothing without him. I thought about how small I am and how short this life truly is but at the same time how BIG God is and how he really really really loves me. He provided for me and protected me through everything that happened that day. From the big things to the small things. I will never forget this experience and hope that by telling this story God gets so much glory. And even though I may be worried about what type of scar may or may not be left behind on my forehead I want nothing but to praise my Father for every blessing he has poured out to me and be thankful for each and every day of life he gives me!
