Internet at the school is still spotty and not back in the apartments yet, but here is post number 2 for Easter Break!
Along with heading to the Falls for Easter Break, I was also blessed to go camping at a national park in Paraguay with a beautiful small river and small waterfalls (especially compared to just seeing Iguazu falls! We were able to go swimming in the river and climbing over, under and behind the waterfalls! It was a slow paced and relaxing time (for the most part) to be able to step back from the life of the city and feel a part of nature again. Oh how I have missed the country! It was the perfect time, half-way through the semester to get a dose of home to carry me on. Truly, while small, one of the best parts of being in nature was seeing God’s incredible masterpiece in the nightly sky! While it was a new beauty and stars I did not recognize, it was one of the first times I could finally see the stars away from the polluted cloudy, city sky! As it gets dark now around 5:30pm I was able to enjoy them for even longer than normal! 
While this middle part of the trip went incredibly well, the bookends were a little more challenging… and certainly required a good bite of faith in the Lord. Our first bus trip to the park was to leave at 7:30am. We awoke early so we could catch the city bus at 6:00am to be sure to make it to the station in time. Then once at the station we were ready to take our seats for the 3 hour bus ride. Yet as we boarded the bus we found people with identical tickets sitting in our seats! After getting off the bus, back on, and finally off the bus we found out that a mistake had been made with double booking (apparently a somewhat common occurrence with this bus line). The bus line representative came down to talk to us. After informing us for the third time that it is very strange to buy bus tickets for this line before the day of the trip, the gentleman then tried to get me to identify the salesman who sold me to ticket so that they could fire him. I conveniently forgot what this man looked like ; ) ! Long story short if we wanted to get to the park that day we were going to have to stand for 3 hours on a bus. As the next day was Holy Friday and everything would be closed, we went for it. Three hours standing on a bus with 30+ people squished in the isles was certainly a new experience! Yet at the end of it (and after another bus ride to the actual park) we were still in high spirits, slightly bruised, but ready for the fun to begin. Still the best was yet to come, and God’s faithfulness again was overwhelmingly shown. On Saturday, the day we were to return, I was awoken to rain. The slight drizzle soon turned to a down pour! As we quickly began to pack up, I was keenly aware of the challenges we could soon be facing as the entire camp ground is near the river, and flooding was definitely a possibility. As the rain continued we packed up the site and rain to the girls bathroom (the only available enclosed building) and joined two families already bunkered in with their non-waterproofed tents sitting outside. As we passed the river I was so grateful that we didn’t camp out on the other side of the river (as 50+ people had, including a girl scout group!). People were trying to get across when they could as the crossing which usually is 1ft. had risen to a rushing 3-4ft. The people had tied ropes across the river and secured themselves to the ropes as the inched across the river. 
You can see the pictures for a better picture of what this looked like. Thank the Lord that as far as I know everyone made it across safely with all of their things (which came later). This was certainly a miracle as 10 yards down the river was a 10 foot drop waterfall (see the picture here). While we were safe in the bathroom we were far from home! The mud roads turned terrible in a short amount of time and the bus that was to take us into the city would not be coming. We were stuck. Our cell phones were out of service, there was no phone at the ranger station, and no one had space that had a car. While we had a little bit of extra food, we did not have a lot to feed 7 for another day. It was appearing that our best chance was hopefully a bus on Sunday morning, Easter morning! Yet, again, the Lord was good and again showed us His incredible blessing and protection. A very kind man, had space for one person to take into town and bring back as a friend of his had lost the keys to his car. Blessing upon blessing, one of our fellow campers was able to ride in with him, convince a taxi van to come and get us and returned with food! Two hours later we were in the town catching another bus back to Asuncion (which we stood for 3hours on, yet again). Isn’t God incredible and awesome! 
You can see the pictures for a better picture of what this looked like. Thank the Lord that as far as I know everyone made it across safely with all of their things (which came later). This was certainly a miracle as 10 yards down the river was a 10 foot drop waterfall (see the picture here). While we were safe in the bathroom we were far from home! The mud roads turned terrible in a short amount of time and the bus that was to take us into the city would not be coming. We were stuck. Our cell phones were out of service, there was no phone at the ranger station, and no one had space that had a car. While we had a little bit of extra food, we did not have a lot to feed 7 for another day. It was appearing that our best chance was hopefully a bus on Sunday morning, Easter morning! Yet, again, the Lord was good and again showed us His incredible blessing and protection. A very kind man, had space for one person to take into town and bring back as a friend of his had lost the keys to his car. Blessing upon blessing, one of our fellow campers was able to ride in with him, convince a taxi van to come and get us and returned with food! Two hours later we were in the town catching another bus back to Asuncion (which we stood for 3hours on, yet again). Isn’t God incredible and awesome! 
No comments:
Post a Comment