As I took a minute to talk to God and center myself I asked "Please don't let my expectations get in the way of fun...Be in it all" and I silently asked Him for the unexpected...
That morning as we loaded up cars Scott had asked God, "Help us remember you this trip."
Well both prayers were answered...in an ironic, unexpected way.
It had been a good first day. The trip went quickly (despite/because of our 5 stops!) The car was fun and lively and the music never stopped. Excitement was in the air. :) Our rooms were nice and we had quickly got settled in before throwing on our suits and running to the refreshing pool (despite the drizzle :/)
We'd been all girly and got dressed up, then our class went out to eat. Some yummy pizza, fun company and pretty scenery.
After dinner we once again piled back into our 2 vans and headed "home", having another meaningless conversation...when all of a sudden we heard thuds and shattering. At first it was hard to tell what happened. But then we realized our car had been stoned, and a window was missing. No one in our car got hurt but we were all shaken and that 20 min ride home on the dark roads seemed like hours. The car in front of got hit too, that's all we knew until we walked into the lobby to see a girl in our class' face completely covered in blood and glass. She had gotten hit by the rock...It felt like it couldn't be real, but God was with us. It was so cool to see how our class pulled together to support one another. Once they moved her to her room she was surrounded by people praying and reciting scripture. The boys played worship music on their guitar and ended up making her giggle- which we all band cuz it hurt her cheek. In the end, we got her to a doctor that was just down the road and everything was ok. The 2 broken windows were annoying as it rained ofter so we always got in a musty wet van, but we just glad we were all ok. There are sooo many areas that we could see God's hand of protection in it all that I can't list them all. But He was there. It was unexpected. And we were ALL definitely thinking about Him (thanks Scott).
(*know that we were not targeted in anyway. Some people were upset due to a political convention, which many took as a political campaign (which is illegal in this country) so they were upset. We were 2 of the 30-40 reported vehicles that were hit and the man responsible for the convention is willing to help pay for the damage)
Once we realize she was ok, things progressively got more and more fun.
Things remained unexpected...like when more people decided to stay at Rempi so we had to fit 21 people into our 16 seater van...it was ok until our spare tire rack fell off.
Or when we were heading out to dinner and our tires locked up so the boys had to jump out in the rain and take the tire off and put it back on...then we had a visit from a hilarious drunk man.
Or when we were trucking through a village to get to the tree to jump out of at Rempi and a native decides to throw rocks at the world's biggest pig - which decides to charge in OUR direction.
Or when Adam wore rugby shorts. ('nough said)
Or when Kaela and I were swimming one morning and decided to get off at this dock...until we realized there was a poisonous sea snake right by her. I'll never forget that image of her dangling on to the dock like a poor sloth, scared out of her brains not able to get up. IT was quite humorous. (haha sorry Kaela...)
Or when we (3 girls) were hiking through the bush of Pig Island looking for the boys and heard weird noises coming from a bush. After freezing, saying "Hello?!?" and hearing scary grunting coming from a shaking bush we screamed and turned around sprinting back to the beach yelling "CHARLLIEEE!!!" (our sponsor) until we turned around to see...Scott walking nonchalantly out of the bush. ARGG. :P
Maybe the time when we fit 28 or us on a 16 seater boat- scarrry...
OR when Kelsey said (as we all stood under a field of coconut trees) "We better watch out for the coconuts- they might fall on our heads" and we all just give her a dismissive glance until...5 seconds later "BOOOM" a coconut plummeted to the ground 20 feet from us! We all screamed and RAN to open coverage.
I have to say that I bravely went and retrieved the coconut, which we ate the next morning :)
*haha I just realized we I made it sound like we had a multi-life-threatening trip, but we really didn't. It was fun and other then the first night we all remained safe & healthy :)
How about when we found a real toilet on the way down- that flushed and everything! woaaaa...
OR when the Marine that was staying at Jais shouted us all free drinks one night :)
And maybe the time when the boys bombed our room with rice...Do you know how painful that is to walk on?
OR Kaela's "You know you're in PNG when you wave at the waiter to get another drink, and he looks at you, smiles and waves back before continuing on his way..." haha
...What can I say- we do live in "The Land of the Unexpected"
Sorry for the typo-galore!
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