So I have been unable to put the last few weeks into words. My co-leader Chelsea did a great job. So the following is a blog that she posted last week.
April 5th I received a call from one of my students telling me that there was an accident. Three of my students along with a local South African friend were driving in a car from Port Elizabeth to Jeffreys Bay for the day. They only made it as far as Greenbushes. The tire on the car blew out and the car flipped over twice. My immediate reaction was to get in the car and start driving. The Jeffreys Bay leaders, two of my best friends, and I were in Port Alfred for the weekend. Frantically we packed are things and jumped in the van. Words could not even come out of our mouths. I phoned the office back in the states, so that they were aware. Death was never even a thought in my mind. During the two-hour drive phones were ringing like crazy with updates and questions. For a short period we lost service in our phones. The first call I received after being out for a few minutes, was from one of my co-leaders. Sarah Buller died in the hospital that afternoon, within two hours of the accident. I felt frozen, thinking that she was joking. Could this really be happening? Did she really just die?
The next few hours and days were a blur. I began to hate the ring of my phone anticipating more bad news. At home we had nine very broken students and three very lost leaders. How can a family truly recover from something like this? This is a loss like no other.
Sarah was supposed to turn nineteen Wednesday April 8, three days after the accident. She was only eighteen years old and she came to Africa to serve the Lord. On her birthday we had a memorial to remember who Sarah was, and she blessed our lives and the lives of others. One of the students shared about what Sarah meant to him. Of the many things he shared he remembered how as a team we just read the book “Don’t Waste Your Life”. He stated that Sarah didn’t waste hers. How many of us will die, and others around us will know without a doubt that we didn’t waste our lives?
Dwight and Peggy Buller have been the two people that have given me the strength in this situation to continue to trust and praise the Lord. Sarah’s parents are like no one I have ever met. Their hearts are larger than any of ours. So large that just a few years ago they adopted four children from Guatemala, while they already had five of their own. After the death of their oldest daughter they were checking to make sure that Sarah’s team and family in Port Elizabeth were doing okay. In this time I am learning to praise Him in the storm, because Dwight and Peggy can do it. I am so thankful to have had the privilege of meeting the Bullers only a few weeks earlier when they came to visit Sarah.
Sarah is a girl that I will never forget. Her impact was great while she was here in Africa. One afternoon after the accident three of us leaders stopped by one of Sarah’s ministries called Isithembiso. It is a transition home for babies and toddlers who have been abused and abandoned. Agnus is the main caretaker of these children. There was a bond that had formed between Sarah and Agnus. Sarah was not a girl of many words, but Agnus felt her presence. When we broke the news to Agnus that afternoon she could barely hold herself together. Her tears made me so proud of the way that Sarah reached out to Agnus. Agnus came to South Africa about a year ago, from Zimbabwe to make money for her family, and her daughter. She lives at Isithembiso with the babies and does not have a life out of the home. Volunteers come in and out of the home and most of them want to hold the cute babies, but Sarah reached out to Agnus and she touched her heart. In Sarah’s quiet way she knew how to reach peoples hearts. She reached mine and I am blessed to have been a part of her last year on this earth.
I promise to write a blog soon with my own words but at this time I am struggling to find them. I will be returning to America on Tuesday. Our team decided after praying for a week that we dont have what we need to finish up the year. The Lords time is different than ours. Pray as we say our good byes to our friends here and to each other. Good byes are always hard when you have been living in a community like we have. I love you all and thanks for your prayers and support.
