“How great is our God, sing with me how great is our God”
It’s 9 am on a rainy Sunday morning, and we are singing this song under the cover of a huge ant infested tree. In Africa we sing to worship, and to make noise for villagers to know that we have arrived. We continue the song waiting for villagers that we have spent the week sharing the gospel with to gather for the first time as a church on Sunday morning. The villagers slowly trickle in, and we continue to sing, “And time is in his hands … let all the earth rejoice” singing these words, I didn’t realize how true they would be for me today.
The church service was followed by a baptism. Since there were new believers that have come to accept Christ, we got to witness and participate in them getting baptized. We all piled into the back of a flat bed and traveled down a dirt road singing some lovely Chichewa gospel songs that we have grown to learn and love. If you have seen the movie “O’ Brother Where Art Thou” that scene with people dressed in white singing an accapella song is similar to the scene we witnessed. It was a first for me to travel to some murky fungus filled water singing praises in Chichewa, and watching people I shared the gospel with that week actually accept Christ and be baptized with the Holy Spirit. The whole time I was thanking God for this gift and privilege.
We’ve been traveling, preaching, and pretty much moving non-stop for two solid weeks. A Malawian told me that you truly haven’t visited Malawi until you have visited the lake. It’s there pride and joy, and as a team we thought it would be an excellent way to take a break, and be rejuvenated by the Lord. Mini buses are the main way of transportation around Malawi. You find a driver who would be willing to take you, and you climb into his make shift bus, which truly is just a van. It contains too many rows of movable seats in a small confined space, and what makes it worse is that the movable seats have sharp metal rods in various crevices. I usually cut my legs by these death seats at some point when getting on and off the bus.
During the long drive to the lake I replay the day in my head, glorifying God in the process for his goodness. Praising how great our God is, and how thankful I am to be a child loved by him. Then, I hear a POP! The tire blew, and I didn’t think much of it, but when we began to skid, fear gripped me. I look up at the rear view mirror to see if the driver would attempt to over correct the skid, and when I saw the horror on his face I knew he was going to make the wrong decision.
We quickly whip around on the road so that it seems like we are parked sideways on a two-lane road. One hand grips the seat in front of me, and the other is placed on the roof to help stabilize me, because I knew the next thing to take place when a fast moving vehicle is skidding would be a roll. I was positioned on the right side of the bus, next to the window on the very last seat; literally sitting on top of the tire that busted during our drive. I yell some inaudible words like “oh no, here we go” and thus begins the rolling. The first thought that came to my mind was “God help us“ and the second thought “Don’t fall out” The first roll took place on the street, my window busted on impact along with the trunk window behind me. That’s when the pack next to me flew out the window. Next to the road was a huge ditch, which was a stimulus to keep our bus rolling. During the second roll, Tommy flew out the window, he was sitting next to me on the left side of the bus.
From my perspective being in the back seat and watching everything in front of me, it seemed like it all took place in slow motion. I saw heads hit the roof, and bodies contort to the circular movement of the bus. I felt like I was in a dryer, and we all were just moving along to the circular propellers that keeps things moving, but for some reason everything felt safe. We were moving along like clothes in a dryer, but we moved softly as if we slowly hit a surface with grace instead of a hard thump. It’s like you drop a penny knowing it will hit hard, and then a feather knowing it will fall softly. We looked like feathers dropping softly instead of the hard thump you would expect our bodies to make.
In retrospect, everything panned out the way God intended it, and I see glimpses of HIS amazing work. For example when the rolling ceased we landed right side up. That in itself is a blessing! Then as a team we worked so incredibly well, and this is grace that God has equipped us with. I knew Tommy was under the van, so I panicked to get out. Daniel lifted me out, and that’s when others realized where Tommy landed. With adrenaline pumping Caleb, Daniel, and Juliette (who has a messed up arm) were able to push the van up, while I pulled him out. After that Caleb began calling everyone, and opened up the lines of communication. Were not even suppose to have phones on the race, but our team has three personal phones, which is a blessing, because our team phone had no minutes thus useless. My phone got passed around to call home, and surprisingly some of our families were heading to church. I had no idea what time it was back home, I had even forgotten that it was Sunday morning for them, but I called and asked them to pray. The Lord answers prayers, not one of our bones are broken!
Immediately after the accident I felt strength and assurance fill me as if God, an angel, or something was standing next to me coaching me along; what I had to do, what was rational, and more importantly how to be strong for my teammates. I felt invincible like the idea of Satan tempting me would be ridiculous. God gave me strength, assurance, and an incorruptible trust that allows me to feel closer to HIM than ever before.
If the devil had a hand in this, well he must be very disappointed with me! The thought of this causes me to crack a smile, and continue glorifying the Lord I serve. Does fear grip me, NO! it just causes me to pray even more to my Father, my provider, the One who I love and trust. The One who I know would never allow anything bad or something I couldn’t handle happen to me. The words from the song, “And time is in his hand” , yes He does control all things, but “let all the world rejoice” for He is a God of Love, and grace. We literally had a ton of people all over the world praying for us, so now let us rejoice for HIM together, because when you think about it “How great is our God”
A text message Caleb got from our driver the next day
