On Wednesday, our family drove to Mexico because it was our 6 month mark of being in Guatemala and we had to renew our visas. We stayed in Tapachula, Mexico in a Comfort Inn hotel. It was a blast! There was a pool and I think we swam like 5 times...
Friday came and it was time for us to come back home. Following our GPS, we found ourselves traveling a much different route than we had taken to get there... and because our GPS was our only means of getting back home, we just had to do exactly as she (her name was Rakel or Carla) told us to do. As we were driving, the roads got rougher, the people gave us wierder looks because not many cars at all drove back there... And the more we drove, the closer time it came for it to start getting dark outside. As we were driving, you could hear each of us whispering prayers to God that He knew exactly what He was doing and asking Him that His will be done in all this.
Having never been so scared in my entire life, I was praying to God. My prayer went something like this.. "God, I know you are good and therefore what is going on right now is good. You have provided everything we needed to make this move to Guatemala, will you not provide for us now?" But then after re-thinking it over, I changed my prayer. "God, you are good no matter what. If you bring us back to safety, this will be a great story that we can tell to show how awesome and powerful You are. And it will give us all more faith in you. But if you choose for us not to make it out of here, You are still good. The move would've been worth it because we've already been able to minister to many people, we've made such great friends, and have grown in our faith in You. God, may Your will be done in this situation." But even though I prayed this prayer, I was still cared out of my mind.
After driving for some time, Dad rolled down his window to 2 men who were standing next to the road to ask where this road was leading to. They said it was only going to be a dead-end and we should retrace our steps back a while to get back to main civilization. As soon as they told us this discouraging news, I looked around to see my other family members' reactions... we all took deep breaths and immediately started praying more and more. We had been driving on these terrible roads having fears that the van would soon break down and we would have to stay in this town over night.. a van-full of gringos without any clue of where we were. All I wanted to do was cry, but having my little brother Joshua sitting next to me, constantly looking at me to try to figure out what all was going on, I held it in because I didn't want him to be as scared as I was. But we prayed and we prayed that God's will be done.
Having to drive back up the very steep mountain, it was starting to get a little dusky. And even with the van being as new as it was, couldn't haul all of us up one big hill, so the oldest girls and Mom had to get out, to see if it could make it. The hill being as steep as it was, the van just couldn't do it, so we had to push. While pushing, Brittney prayed out loud that God would give us the strength it would take to push the van up, and God was faithful and gave us the strength we needed.
Climbing back in the van, we stil continued to pray and trust that God knew exactly what He was doing. We finally made it to a road that actually had cars on it, and we all rejoiced to see other vehicles coming and going! We drove on until we came to a city called Quetzaltenango where we decided to stay the night and we would then finish the trip the next day. While thanking God for delivering us from literally the most terrifying moment in my life, we prayed that He would provide us a good, safe hotel to stay in for the night. After about an hour of driving around and passing hotels that we just didn't feel right about, we finally came across one that looked clean and safe. Dad parked the van and went to go check it out. It turned out that this hotel was Christian-run and was very cheap, yet clean and safe. We unloaded our things and tossed them into our rooms.
While Dad went out to park the van in the parking lot, I walked into my Mom and Dad's room and my Mom asked me if I was okay. I looked at her and just fell apart. Not because I was still scared, but because I had never had so many emotions running through me at one time. After just crying with her for a couple minutes, I was better. Not myself by any means, but better. When he finished parking, we all gather into one room and praised God for bringing us through. We talked about all the ways that God took care of us, even when things looked like they just kept getting worse and worse. We prayed and all went to our rooms to get some sleep before the rest of the trip that would take place the next day. But me, being the stupid worrywart that I can be sometimes, woke up numerous times from dreams that we were stuck in the village and couldn't get out. I prayed that God would give me the rest I desperately needed, and He did.
In the morning, when we set off for breakfast and the last leg of the trip, we got outside and were so relieved to see daylight. It was refreshing to know that we will have the sun to help us out on our way back home, because in the scariness of driving the previous day, the scariest parts were driven in the dark. We got on the main road and took it all the way back to Chimaltenango and Dad knew his way back from there. I can not tell you how good it felt to be back into cities that I reccognized. If felt so good to be home where I felt safe. (Oh, by the way, we changed the GPS's name to Cruella Deville..)
A couple days after this incredibly big story, I was sitting in our living room, doing my devotions. I don't know what God has for me in my future. I mean, I know that I'm supposed to go to Uganda and minister to the people there, but I have no idea how I'm supposed to get my training or how I'm supposed to get there. I was pouring my heart out to God and asking Him for direction. And I realized. While I was praying in the van, my prayer wasn't "God, please let Rakel to bring us to safety and let everything be good, and keep us safe." I prayed that God would tell her to lead us where He wanted us to go. I prayed that Rakel would pick the right roads for us to go on. And even though it seemed like she (well, God) was taking us on the wrong roads, God knew exactly where we were going. He picked the right roads for us to be on. He wanted us to have that experience for a reason, even if we could't see it then. But because of all that, I now have more faith in God. I always knew that He could do anything, but now it's written even more on my heart. From my personal experience, I saw God's hand at work. I saw Him bring us out of the most seemingly impossible situation. So even if we went through all of that for nothing else, but the fact that I have more faith in Him, it would've still been worth it. I trust Him more and can trust Him in the future when He leads me into the rural villages of Uganda. I can know that He is good no matter what and He will provide everything I will need when I need it.
So, if you ask me how our trip to Mexico went, I'd tell you a mixture of things. I'd say that the drive there and the stay there went very well and we had a blast, but the drive home was not the smoothest of drives and certainly helped me to grow in my faith...and it most definitely was not what I had expected... but I'm glad it all happened because God's hand was with us through it all.
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