Zambia update on day of October 5th

What a day yesterday was for the whole team. It was was physically and emotionally exhausting, let me explain our day. We left for Macha in the morning around 9:30 am, the travel there was going fine and we were about 45 minutes into the trip. Well this charter bus (you know the big buses that transport mass numbers of people) that we had passed, then passed us. About 5 minutes after they passed us, I heard Dr. Bee yell “Close your windows”, when I looked ahead I saw a wall of dust ahead of us. I thought it was just a dust storm, but soon realized that it was not when I saw a tree down and the charter bus off the road with the left side smashed and wide open. I saw a woman and a child laying a few yards behind the bus. We yelled for our driver to pull over as we saw a man waving for help. We instantly pulled gloves out not knowing what we would find when we went to the crash site. We were the first responders. It was slow motion for me until I ran across the road. We ran through the grass. The first passenger I saw was a worker on the bus, his head was seeping blood and his face was covered as well, it looked as though he had a broken arm. A few stayed with him, and I ran up to the bus where all you could hear as you approached was screaming and yells for help. Our adrenaline was instantly pumping. It was like something you see in the movies, but this time it was real. There were two ladies severely injured in the front of the bus. Both with broken legs and severe gashes on their heads and arms. Some how the bus was still upright. People were filing out through the broken windshield and glass. I was standing there helping whomever. People were coming out with gashes and various other injuries. At one point this grandma came and I knew she wasn’t going to be able to get down. I don’t know where the strength came from but I just lifted her down as if she was light as a feather. It was chaos. We were running around assessing wounds, trying to stop bleeding. Using our water bottles to wash the wounds and see how severe they were. We lifted the women with the broken legs out and had to set them with poles from the buses, sticks, chitenges whatever we could find. It was triage care, doing our best to assess who was injured the worst and who needed to be transported first to the hospital. The woman who jumped from the bus was carried up, somehow she survived with only a few gashes and a broken leg, her child was unharmed only by God’s protection. Some how there were no unconscious people or serious abdomen wounds. In the end there were no fatalities either.The team just worked together, we carried many people and loaded them into trucks to be transported. We worked together to get everyone off the bus, and God protected us all from the possibility of gas leaks and other danges. He protected us from the bus tipping over. The timing of everything is so unreal, we were possibly going to have class that morning, if so we wouldn’t have been there to help, we were going to leave later but the bus got their on time for once and we left on time, the charter bus passed us right before their tire blew, but there was enough distance that we weren’t involved in the crash as well. I ran from person to person , lifting people out of the bus when needed, putting pressure on gashes when I saw one. Carrying people to the trucks, giving sips of water to people , keeping those awake with head injuries. It is a blur now. The fact that we were only 15 minutes from choma hospital was another God thing. After everyone whom was seriously injured was on route to the hospital, we filed back to our vehicle and instantly everything that we experienced hit us. As we prayed to God for the people injured and heading to Choma we cried together. God protected us, He had us in place at just the right time to be at the scene of the crash, literally moments after it happened. Processing is still occurring but we are all humbled and thankful that God would use us to help in such a situation. We are safe at Macha now and no one from our group was injured. Just some soreness today with some minor scratches. Please continue to keep this team in your prayers as we continue to follow Christ in the path that He has laid for us. “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.” - Isaiah 43:1b-2

Zambia update from October 5th

What a day yesterday was for the whole team. It was was physically and emotionally exhausting, let me explain our day. We left for Macha in the morning around 9:30 am, the travel there was going fine and we were about 45 minutes into the trip. Well this charter bus (you know the big buses that transport mass numbers of people) that we had passed, then passed us. About 5 minutes after they passed us, I heard Dr. Bee yell “Close your windows”, when I looked ahead I saw a wall of dust ahead of us. I thought it was just a dust storm, but soon realized that it was not when I saw a tree down and the charter bus off the road with the left side smashed and wide open. I saw a woman and a child laying a few yards behind the bus. We yelled for our driver to pull over as we saw a man waving for help. We instantly pulled gloves out not knowing what we would find when we went to the crash site. We were the first responders. It was slow motion for me until I ran across the road. We ran through the grass. The first passenger I saw was a worker on the bus, his head was seeping blood and his face was covered as well, it looked as though he had a broken arm. A few stayed with him, and I ran up to the bus where all you could hear as you approached was screaming and yells for help. Our adrenaline was instantly pumping. It was like something you see in the movies, but this time it was real. There were two ladies severely injured in the front of the bus. Both with broken legs and severe gashes on their heads and arms. Some how the bus was still upright. People were filing out through the broken windshield and glass. I was standing there helping whomever. People were coming out with gashes and various other injuries. At one point this grandma came and I knew she wasn’t going to be able to get down. I don’t know where the strength came from but I just lifted her down as if she was light as a feather. It was chaos. We were running around assessing wounds, trying to stop bleeding. Using our water bottles to wash the wounds and see how severe they were. We lifted the women with the broken legs out and had to set them with poles from the buses, sticks, chitenges whatever we could find. It was triage care, doing our best to assess who was injured the worst and who needed to be transported first to the hospital. The woman who jumped from the bus was carried up, somehow she survived with only a few gashes and a broken leg, her child was unharmed only by God’s protection. Some how there were no unconscious people or serious abdomen wounds. In the end there were no fatalities either.The team just worked together, we carried many people and loaded them into trucks to be transported. We worked together to get everyone off the bus, and God protected us all from the possibility of gas leaks and other danges. He protected us from the bus tipping over. The timing of everything is so unreal, we were possibly going to have class that morning, if so we wouldn’t have been there to help, we were going to leave later but the bus got their on time for once and we left on time, the charter bus passed us right before their tire blew, but there was enough distance that we weren’t involved in the crash as well. I ran from person to person , lifting people out of the bus when needed, putting pressure on gashes when I saw one. Carrying people to the trucks, giving sips of water to people , keeping those awake with head injuries. It is a blur now. The fact that we were only 15 minutes from choma hospital was another God thing. After everyone whom was seriously injured was on route to the hospital, we filed back to our vehicle and instantly everything that we experienced hit us. As we prayed to God for the people injured and heading to Choma we cried together. God protected us, He had us in place at just the right time to be at the scene of the crash, literally moments after it happened. Processing is still occurring but we are all humbled and thankful that God would use us to help in such a situation. We are safe at Macha now and no one from our group was injured. Just some soreness today with some minor scratches. Please continue to keep this team in your prayers as we continue to follow Christ in the path that He has laid for us. “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.” - Isaiah 43:1b-2