The Car Accident

Right now, we're stuck in the middle of Nebraska! The rest of Challenge was AMAZING....so many heart changes and lots of commitments to Christ. I was so touched to see our students loving God and making serious commitments to stay true to Him. Yesterday, we started on our long 16 hour drive home. God was protecting us to say the least. Let me tell you the story of our car accident.

We started out from Salt Lake City at 7:00am and we were planning on getting to a town in Nebraska in time for fireworks. I drove alot of the way (even in the huge mountains in a 15 passenger van with a trailer on the back!), but around 12:00, we decided to switch drivers. Our other leader started driving when all of a sudden one of our tires blew! He was able to come to a stop and get our car off to the side of the road. It was a little scary, but we put the spare on and drove to the nearest auto store to get a new tire. What we forgot was that it was the Fourth of July! And, the entire state of Wyoming closes for the holidays! We finally got to a town, only to find out that the nearest place that was opened was a Walmart 100 miles away. So, we headed there, got the tire fixed and continued on our way.

I drove again, through Wyoming into Nebraska and then was getting tired, so I asked Aaron to drive. This is important because if it would have been me driving either time, I would have NOT been able to handle the car as well as our two guy leaders did! Aaron had been driving no longer than 30 minutes when all of a sudden another one of our tires blew, this time MUCH worse than before. The car spun out of control, to the right and then to the left until Aaron was able to get it to the huge grassy median and our van starting spinning around. Our van would have no doubt rolled if we didn't have our trailer on the back. We jacknived the trailer and came to an abrupt stop. That trailer not only saved our lives, but saved us from any injuries.

The girls screamed and cried until people stopped and helped us out. As a youth leader, it was so scary to think of all the people we were responsible for and so scary to think of the "what if's". God was majorly protecting us and I remember one of our girls praying before we left for guardian angels to surround our van. They definitely were watching over us. We watched fireworks from the road as we tried to fix the van and finally decided to get a tow. We found a church that would give us a ride to a hotel and we arrived here around midnight last night. We're now waiting for some parents to come and get us.

Blessing in Disguise? We have one student who is confused about Christianity and on Thursday night said that she doesn't know where she would go if she died. We have prayed and prayed and prayed for this girl that she would finally get it. After the car accident, she was the most terrified and I believe that God is going to use it in her life. She still has not made a commitment, but I believe that she will! If you think about it, pray for her! She is sooooo close to trusting in God! Pray that as we talk to her again today, that she would believe and be saved! Thank you soooo much for praying...we covet your prayers!