Satan – You Failed
*raw journal entry from Aug 19 and 20th – the honest truth of what happened
Satan, you failed. Just give it up already. God is with us and we will not be defeated.
The last 48 hours have been some the most challenging times in India. Satan did not want us to get to New Dehli. He throw barrier after barrier at us. But we made it here. We made it here because of God's grace. Even though at times I wanted to give up and quit… I didn't. We made it cause we came together as a team.
Now Satan give up the attacks, we are trusting God to get us through the week.
What happened???
Well you see we were in this small town of Jhabau and our task is to go to New Dehli. Pretty simple. Rent a car. Go to the train station. Take a train with no a/c 18 hours away to Dehli. Enjoy and have a relaxing time in Dehli.
Well nothing ever goes as planned.
There were disagreements starting even before leaving Jhabau because we all had different views on the time we should leave the house to get to the train station. It was a lesson learned of submission and respect towards authority. Even if my personal experience with the roads and my head knowledge of the distance told me to leave early. Ultimately it is the leaders making the decisions and I have to give then honor and respect in every decision. They decided to leave at 6:30pm…. Which equaled leaving at 7pm.
The driver picked us up and he was 76 years old. And we quickly learned that he had bad eye sight. And it was at night and the roads are filled with pot holes and cars. We hit more pot holes than missed and I feared for my life every time a car was coming in the opposite direction. Imagine driving in the middle of the road, and a massive truck coming straight towards you. The truck is flashing its lights at you, but is not slowing down. It's coming fast and we are in the middle of its path. We are all screaming in our minds and holding our breathe. Now the truck is blaring its horn only a few feet away – we are going to hit. We swerve slightly and the truck swerves the other way. We are inches aparts – the truck never slowed down once… It was going so fast. By then we are all literally yelling for the driver pull over and stop. He did…. We sat on the side of the road, hearts pounding. This guy can not and will not drive anymore.
Thankfully we got a different driver. A driver who knew our time crutch to get to the train station. Knowing the time… Made the driving just as scary as the blind guy. I thought we were going to die or just commit man slaughter. He was going so fast. In India, there are cars on the road with head lights. But there are also cows and dogs. And there are also people and bikes. Many people walk in the road. And you can't see them at night until you are basically on top of them. I was so afriad, even more afriad of the people we were going to hit. We were going so fast.
Then we got to the city with the train station. It was very populated. Tons of people out and about – thankfully our driver slowed way down. Imagine a road crowded with people and shops. You see this one guy motioning for us to stop. But our driver knows the train station is ahead. So he is now creeping along, even thought the dude is saying Stop. Then a explosive firework goes off in the road in front of us. We scream. Then another goes off closer to us. Then a third – literally three feet from the car. An explosive firework with gunpowder and strength… If we had been any closer I am not sure if our car would have made it. By then I was about in tears. Then our driver started to drive again and I seriously thought we were going to run over a firework (which was more like a bomb). Honestly the scariest moment on the race. Within two minutes, we made it to the train station. Thank you God. I couldn't talk… I was too shaken by the entire drive and the fireworks in the road.
Just breathe – I keep telling myself that – Just breathe. We made it and we are safe.
We unload. Carry our packs to the correct platform. And wait cause we have about five minutes to spare. We wait…. And wait.. And then start to think something is up. Plus there is basically no one on the platform we were on. Soon we get the news – we have missed our train. After all that, we missed it. It was at 7:05, not 7:45.
Our leaders ponder the decisions to be made… How do we get New Dehli now? What are options and what do we do for the night? Are we sleeping at the train station?
We decide to drive back to our contacts house and have dinner, discuss our future plans at the house. I choose to ride in the other car (for safety concerns and my sanity). We get back and have chai and biscuits. They graciously made us dinner. Rice and curry. And we ate around 11pm. The decision has been made. We are going to fly to New Dehli! The flight leaves at 7:50am and the airport is about 3 hours away.
Celebration time at midnight! It's Ben's birthday! And then we are off! We hire a different driver and leave around 12:30am.
When we go out to load up all of our luggage again. Two police men drive up and question our doings in India. Of course we are tourist just trying to make our way to Dehli. Thankfully they didn't give us to much trouble. Just stared until we actually drove away.
Our three hour journey to the airport turned into a six hour treacherous ride through uncharted territories. Ok it wasnt uncharted territories, but it was very treacherous due to all the rain this country has gotten and the conditions of the dirt roads. It was one of the most uncomfortable rides of my life.
At 3:30am we took a chai break at a random house. And then around 6am we arrived safely to the airport. We were all just thankful to be on solid grounds. And to have toilets. Sadly the airport check in counters didnt open till 7am. So we waited…
Yay. We got checked in and got on the plane. The plane was half empty so we got to spread out and have windows seats. Before the plane even took off some of us were dozing off to sleep (cause no one slept through the night). Before we know it we were landing in New Dehli at 9:20am.
By the time we arrived in New Dehli, my teammate was extremely sick with stomach pains, dizziness, and vomiting. Barely able to walk – she was able to make it to the car and to the apartment we are staying in and crashing. It was bad. (thankfully it was only a 24 hour thing and she is better now.)
Its Benjamin's birthday. After resting during the day, we wanted to go out to celebrate Ben's birthday. So we left the house around 5pm. Everyone is new to the town and no one really knows were anything is at… Sooo we take a bike rikshaw to the main part of town. Everyone is still exhausted from the trip and tensions were high.
Burgers… All we want are burgers. (I dreamt about burgers the other day). We walked and walked and walked. Going in and out of resturants and looking at menus. After a solid hour of walking in the Rain our contact informs us we won't be able to find burgers anyway (that would have been helpful to know at the beginning but anyway) by then it was 8pm and we are starving. We settle for a place called Sizzlers. And it was actually good… Expensive but good.
Yay it's time to go home and rest. We are all tired from the day. So we start walking… We come to some bike rikshaws but our leader can't cut a deal with them since we are white… Sooo we keep walking… Then we come to some more bike rikshaws. These seem more hopeful – even our leader got on it but then something happened and we decided not to accept the ride. So we start walking again. I knew it was a solid hour walk and figured we would get home around 10:45pm.
This is when times got frustrating. There was no communication. Everyone is tired. Some people knew the way, but others would not listen. We don't know the address except for our leader who is way ahead. And everyone has different walking speeds.
One good thing about the night was I had some really good conversations with my teammate. Which was encouraging and really good.
So we disagree with what way to go. Again coming under authority and the whole respect thing. We get lost. Our leader is frustrated and will not stop walking and will not ask for directions. A police man even stopped me and my teammate to see if we needed help but we didn't have the address and they were too far ahead sooo fail.
Finally we ask… And have to backtrack. Everyone is frustrated and tired. And it's 11pm. I walk with the three guys while the three others are racing ahead and we can't keep up. Soon the three in front are out of sight. It is pitch black on the road. Beyond pitch black. You could hear people talking. Dogs barking. Dogs coming inches away. Knowing that people were around but not being able to see them. I was honestly scared. One time I was seriously afriad of the dark. But thankful for the boys to protect me. We made it home. Praise Jesus! The house is pitch black… No electricity, no fans. But the other three (the ones that were ahead) weren't there. Great now we have people lost in the city in the middle of the night. Learning that speeding ahead and making rash decision in ampted up emotions is not always best.
By midnight everyone is home. Celebration time again. Time to have cake with candles for Ben's birthday on the roof. Good times, but exhausted. Time for bed.
It is miserable. Beyond miserable. Literally sweat rolling off my face. All over my body. Mosquitoes eating me alive. Not being able to breathe cause the air is thick with humidity. Will this day ever end! Crying out to God and feeling defeated. Why!
One of the worst nights on the race…. Around 1:30am the electricity and the fans came back on… Thank you Lord. Time for this 48 hours to be over.
All in all…. The scariest moment happend
The most uncomfortable ride happened
The never ending frustrating walk happened.
And the most miserable night happened.
Satan give it up already.
God is on our side and ultimately we will cry out to him. Literally yell out to our heavenly father. I prayed more over the last 48 hours than the entire time in India. Constantly crying out for my Daddy to come to the escape. To come protect me. To come comfort me. To come and just be with me in those times.
"Never will I leave you,
Never will I forsake you.
So we say with confidence,
The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?"
– Hebrews 1:5-6Satan – You Failed
