It’s been over 2 months since the landslide, and, now that it’s no longer quite as fresh, I feel like I can look back on it and say, “That was hard, but God is good, and He’s already redeeming it.”
I wrote 2 blogs on how hard the landslide was, and while I touched a little on how faithful God was, I feel like we need to set aside a blog for God’s goodness, faithfulness, and the way He was working.
1: The vans had been moved, so they didn’t get pushed into the building we were inside, and they were able to provide warmth while we waited in the rain.
2: We were told to evacuate the cabins into the dining hall, because of a risk of trees falling. If we hadn’t moved, we would have been eating breakfast on the porch and been directly hit by the landslide.
3: I felt a prompting to pack up all my stuff when we left the cabin. I partially obeyed (everything I’d packed up was later rescued, while everything left out was lost).
4: I brought my Bible bag in a waterproof bag into the dining hall. It wasn’t rescued until weeks later, but almost everything inside my Bible bag (including my letters from home and my Training Camp journal) was safe, despite laying in mud for weeks!
5: We’d been called together for prayer, which kept everyone out of the part of the building that got hit the worst.
6: There was flooding happening in one part of the dining hall, which made the leaders announce that no one should go over there. That place was the first to be hit.
6: No one (out of 36 people) was in the bathrooms (which were completely destroyed), even though multiple people had mentioned that they really had to go.
7: Having a time of worship was suggested, but since logistics had to figure stuff out, it was delayed, which meant we had people watching and listening when the landslide first started.
8: People not only were looking out the windows when it happened, but they also had the presence of mind to yell for everyone else to move. If not for the yell, I would have just stared at the mud until it hit me, because it never occurred to me that it could take down a building.
9: There just happened to be a trained survival expert on site, who was able to help us cross a river that had not been there 3 hours earlier.
10: Throughout all of this, I felt only peace. Maybe some people would call that shock, but I know it was God comforting me.
11: The place we’d been doing ministry at earlier opened their doors to us and gave us food, water, dry clothes, medical attention, and encouragement.
12: Many Bibles were recovered in perfect condition, despite being rescued from under a foot of mud.
13: A team from AIM was able to reach us, despite the danger to themselves and the belief that it was impossible to drive to us.
14: The prison gates were wide open, which was the only way the team from AIM could reach us. Later, we left the same way, and the gates were closed shortly after the last truck had passed.
15: A leader felt God prompt her to ask the hotel staff if there were any rental cars available. She was overheard by random people who immediately volunteered their trucks to rescue us.
16: We were moved before the rising flood waters could trap us.
17: A hotel that was full to the brim opened their conference room to us, where we stayed the night.
18: We were out past curfew, yet no cops stopped us, even though we drove straight past them.
19: People saw we had no shoes and took off the shoes from their own feet to give to us.
20: A dad of a Racer drove through the night with vans that could take us back to AIM base. The 3 hour trip took 8 hours.
21: The highways we took to get back to Georgia were shut down shortly after we used them.
22: Everyone who lost their passport was able to get a replacement before we had to leave for Guatemala, even the people who had no appointment.
23: The whole week before the landslide, we’d been seeing so many rainbows (I think 5 of the most vibrant rainbows I’d ever seen), and we were the only Squad freaking out about them.
All of this was just from my perspective! There’s so much more that happened specifically to individual people, but this was my side of the story!
I’m not apologizing for the long post, because it’s something that needs to be told!
The knowledge of these events inspires my heart. God’s goodness and faithfulness was working in that whole situation. What better place for you to be… right in the middle of where God was revealing Himself to you and many others. (Despite the storm and destruction)
It is wonderful the way the Lord watches over us, His love for his children is so amazing. Praying for you Sofia.
This made me think of in the Old Testament where they would go back and pile rocks together as an altar to God to remember what He had done for them. May you keep this list as a remembrance of His faithfulness and provision over you in your life!
Super amazing testimony of all the ways God protected all of you!!! I am sure that whole event in of itself solidified your training! Thank you for taking the time to share of the faithfulness of God in your life! He is good!!!