Chairlift Rescue at Grouse Mountain : Holding on to Hope

Chairlift Rescue

Soon I will write up a post on my experience this day!  But for now I just want to write a small paragraph.  Just when the situation seemed hopeless, God inspired amazing people to turn it around.  He used five teens, from which at least three are loving faithful Christians, and two adults to completely change the ending to this story.  These five teens are an inspiration, their families chose homeschooling for them - and clearly it has paid off.  The five of them were  instruments in God's hands that amazing day!

God tenderly directed every person to help.  He also gave amazing fortitude to the father who held on to his child for so long.  Although it was terrifying for me, and at times I felt helpless, I prayed.    In my heart I knew I needed to document this amazing situation, people needed to see.  And the response has been amazing, people are being inspired and touched by God all over the world because of this video.  I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to "be God's hands and eyes" on this day.  Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit!

Feel free to ask me any questions you might have...

Carolina Prada Akoglu

Want to Know: What is life teaching us?

 There are many trade-offs to the hardships that come with constant traveling and moving around.  But, in the end we will find ourselves becoming very interesting people. We will have learned lessons that could not have been learned otherwise, lessons about other people and lessons about ourselves. Not everybody has the opportunity to partake of this type of life, so if we have had such an opportunity, we should be grateful to God for giving us such a gift. But we must always keep in mind that the joys of moving come as a package with the sorrows of departing.

            There are many types of lives…from the life of sedentary people who were born and raised in the city in which they live to the life of nomads who have moved around all their lives. After considering the different types of life, I have only one thing to say: We should feel blessed whichever our life is like. Yes, we should feel blessed, because our lives are unique and precious.   We live through the experiences, adventures and situations that have a potential of becoming great learning experiences.  There is nothing impossible for God, and His specialty is to turn bad situations around and to make them a blessing in our lives.  We are in this world to grow in holiness and to experience this wonderful world God has so lovingly created for us.  And whatever comes our way, come what may, we experience exactly the situations we were meant to experience, exactly as we were meant to experience them. Everything in our lives has a purpose to make us grow; to make our spirit, our mind and our heart grow; to help us grow in our knowledge and love of God and in our knowledge and love of our neighbour.

         So, no matter what our life is like, no matter what the situation, we must never fail to search for what it is that God is teaching us. Let’s take the time and ask ourselves:

·      What can I learn from this?

·      Where is it taking me?

·      What lessons am I supposed to be learning?

·      What can I change?

·      How can I be better?

 These are all important questions because they remind us that nothing happens by accident, everything happens for a reason and everything is perfect.

            When we ask ourselves a question, it is important that we look for an answer. Jesus said, “Seek and you will find” (Matthew 7:7). If we ask, our minds will find answers that will help us understand the various situations and different moments of our lives. Even when a particular situation might be dragging us down and we barely have the strength to carry on, if we manage to hold on and ask the right questions, we will soon see wonderful changes changes in the way we feel, changes in the way we think and changes in the way things seem.[1] We will see clearly that things can change in a moment and that there is much to be learned. Even in the toughest times, we can find the right answers, and the right approach. We are blessed to have the chance to live through situations that will give us wisdom and that will mold our character. We are exactly where we are meant to be.

            The Bible tells us we are citizens of heaven. What a wonderful citizenship to have! We belong to heaven, and this beautiful world was made for us. How special are we? How great is God’s love for us? That thought is enough to enable us to feel special no matter how our lives have been. It is marvelous to know God made this wonderful world just for us. Understanding that we are citizens of heaven should be enough to bring a smile to our faces every day of our lives!

Wisdom to contemplate:

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

 (Philippians 3:20)

“The earth is the LORD’S and all it holds, the world and those who live there. For God founded it on the seas, established it over the rivers. (Psalm 24:1)

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[1] Anthony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within.

Painful situations can bring us together

Isn’t it ironic how in a blink of an eye our whole life can change? We often have a hard time realizing how lucky and blessed we are when everything in our lives is running smoothly. In one second our life can hang by a thread, in a moment our life can come to an end but we go about our lives refusing to think about it. It is a subject we do not want to address. We hardly ever stop to think about the frailty of our lives and about how much we need God. We end up wasting time in meaningless things and vain pursuits precious time that could have been spent deepening our relationship with God, mending broken relationships, improving ourselves, loving more, sharing more, finding more reasons to be happy and fewer reasons to be sad.

            We do not like to think about these things, but perhaps we should because then we could be somewhat more prepared when hard times come. Oftentimes, it is when we go through hardships that we find out what we are made of. It is then that we are given an opportunity to draw on the grace God has given us, an opportunity to exercise our strength, wisdom, love, patience, kindness and faith. It is in distressing times that we really come to experience the protection and mercy of God. If we can be ready for these tough times, through prayer, then a tragedy, a catastrophe or a great tribulation can be the source of spiritual growth and some of the biggest blessings in our lives.

            Sometimes, no matter how much we have prayed and how ready we think we are to face anything, when a terrible situation comes our way, we feel like St. Augustine when he wrote in his Confessions that he was “appalled at a world that could go on as though our catastrophe had not happened.” We feel drained, we feel frozen, and only hope remains.

            Many valuable lessons can be learned about hope, faith, endurance and strength. One of the greatest lessons is that the driving force behind all of these qualities is love. God has given us human beings an amazing capacity to survive the most heartbreaking moments. The great love of God that unites and that pours out from family members, friends and even strangers becomes the solid foundation that sustains us when we most need it, that great love that many times gets forgotten in the rush of everyday life.

            There are many amazing stories about people who have survived adversity and found it has not only changed their lives but touched the lives of many others as well. These are people who have survived by holding on to hope. Sometimes hope is all we need in order to make it through one more day. And one more day is all we need in order to make it through the rest of our lives¾because each new day brings renewed hope and a renewed understanding that God has given us the strength to endure difficult times and the courage to go on.

            Hope gives us strength when adversity pushes us to the limit. In adversity, hope gives us the ability to open our eyes and see what is really of value in life. Many people’s lives change forever because in hope they find meaning to their suffering. Great difficulties can pull people together, and many times great difficulties can produce forgiveness. Difficult times and problems are part of life, but it is how we choose to see these moments and how we choose to act in these times that will determine if they are in vain or not.

Wisdom to contemplate:

 “Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the holy Spirit that has been given to us.” (Romans 5:5)

“He rescued us from such great danger of death, and he will continue to rescue us; in him we have put our hope (that) he will also rescue us again.” (2 Corinthians 1:10)

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and God of all encouragement, who encourages us in our every affliction, so that we may be able to encourage those who are in any affliction with the encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged by God.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)