When You Go Through Deep Waters...

A month has passed since the night I drove our van - the van God gave us for free when we arrived in the States -  into a deep ditch of water on a dark, rain stormy night. It was one of those experiences where I couldn't believe it was really happening. We'd just arrived in Naperville, IL and while Eli got the boys settled down for bed, I decided to run out to Walmart real quick for some things.
 It was dark and raining very hard. I was following directions on my GPS but missed the turn so I looked ahead for a street to turn on so I could find a place to turn around. As I slowed to turn at the street sign, instead of driving on the road, somehow I must have turned too soon and didn't see that there was a deep ditch full of water that was also covering the road. There was no impact. I just suddenly found myself sinking nose down in deep waters that were quickly coming in through the hood and over my lap. I grabbed my purse and pushed the driver's door open so I could get out. I remember thinking that I didn't know how deep it was - I could have driven into a pond for all I knew!

Dark and rainy so the picture isn't too clear.

 When I pushed myself out of the door, I found myself in cold water up to my waist. I got up to a dry place, off the road where I knew I'd be safe from passing cars. In what seemed like forever but was probably just about a minute or two, a police car drove up and the officer came over to check on me to see if I was alright. I told him I was shaken up and couldn't get a hold of my husband. He let me sit inside of his car where it was dry to wait for the tow truck and let Eli know what had happened.

After a very complicated tow to get the van out of the water, the kind police man drove me back to our hotel where Eli was waiting for me. The next day was a blur - moving in with friends who also lent us their van to drive, putting all our belongings out to dry to see what we could salvage, settling our bill at the tow company (they started out asking for $2800!!!) and realizing our van was totaled. However, before we even had confirmation that our van was totaled, Eli received an unbelievable phone call - the compassionate "Samaritan", as we called him, was a friend of one of our best friends, and wanted to buy us a new van! BUY US A NEW VAN! What???? Who does that?

We were in shock but also in total awe of our God. The same God who said, "I will be with you when you go through deep waters", provided above and beyond for our family and gave us the most incredible van!

Drying out all our stuff

Most precious to me were my journals from the past few years in South Sudan

Here it is!
Our new 2012 Honda Odyssey Van

To be honest, in the weeks since this whole episode happened, I have gone over the details again and again in my mind. As I gazed at the soggy and smeared pages of my precious journals I asked the Lord, "Have I really not had enough lessons on losing everything? What else do I need to learn?!"

I'm not sure why and how I drove our old van into the water ditch that night. It definitely ripped open the "scab" that was healing over my heart after losing everything in our home in Doro over Christmas. One thing I do know: God wanted to show off. He wanted to teach our family yet again that He is walking through the hard times and "deep waters"  with us. And though the lessons aren't easy, He is forever faithful and true, going before us and providing in spectacular ways. Experiences like this remind me all over again why I've committed to living my life 100% for my God. There is nothing to fear.

He's got this. HE'S GOT ME.