Wrong Turn

On March 23, Albert (59) and Rita (56) Creitchen left their home in Penticton, British Columbia to attend a trade show in Las Vegas. Guided by their new GPS device, the couple decided to take the scenic route through northern Nevada.  The device guided them onto an abandoned logging road in the wild and untamed Humboldt National Forest.   Three days after the van got stuck in the mud, Albert decided to walk to Mountain  City, NV to find help.  Guided by the same device that had led he and his bride into the forest, he took off on foot and disappeared into the wilderness leaving his wife in the car.  For the next 7 weeks Rita survived on a diet of trail mix, snow and creek water.   With temperatures falling below zero several nights, she drained the car battery for warmth.
   I can only imagine her state of being, her body quickly eating herself to survive, the silence of the inside of the car cut by her own shallow breath, the strange and unfamiliar sounds of the forest...the trickling water, the cold wind blowing through the leaves and the hidden wildlife watching the strange metal beast that had come to die in their living room.
   Visions of her beloved husband cresting the horizon...mirages. The calls of his voice, "rita, wake up, we're saved, I brought help."... waking dreams.  Memories playing over and over through her mind interrupted by 'if onlys'.  If only we had stayed on the main road...if only we had told someone we were going this way, if only we had stayed at home.
   But what good are if onlys now?  It's not what the Lord would want.  My last moments driven by regret.  So she read, took walks, devised plans...how to stay alive.  I could climb that peak right there, look over it maybe figure out where I am.  But if I left, he may not find me.  I might get lost, fall down, get hurt.   Best if I stay here with the car.  What if that's what happened to Al?  What if he fell down, what if he's laying there waiting for me?
   And that's where so many might have given way to the elements, to the certain future that lay before them.  Perhaps in a few months someone would find the car and Rita's decayed body.  Think of the Isrealites who wondered through the desert for forty years.  Is this my desert?  How many days has it been?  Lord, please protect him, protect me.  Your name is higher than any other name I know. "In the day of my trouble, I call upon you, for you answer me."

  You have the ability to work miracles.  I believe you.    You are good, this I know.  And this praise would give way to worshiping in song.  Rita was already with her creator on this side of heaven.  He was sitting right beside her in the car.  
"Cover the windows with blankets Rita."
And she did.
"you have fish oil capsules, remember?"
"Oh, yes!"  She did remember.  "they'll provide some nutrition."
"Friday," He said.
"Friday," she repeated. But was uncertain what this meant.  Does this mean going home to my family or going home to be with my Savior?  Either way, Friday.
   It was Friday, May 6, seven weeks after the Cretiens van had gotten stuck, a week after Ritas frail body had become too weak to walk to the creak any longer for water , a week since she had only been able to drink from a puddle of standing water near the car, that  a low growl of machinery whizzed in the distance and seemed to get increasingly louder.  Another mind trick for sure.  But the noise continued growing louder until Rita rolled down the window and peered out.  On the road came three figures on ATVs.  Another mirage?  But, as she was still sorting it out in her mind, she found herself suddenly talking to these strangers, "help me, were stuck, my husband went for help.  He hasn't come back.  Can you help us?

The three hunters who had gotten turned around themselves tried to give her water and chips, but she was unable to eat.  She drank the water.  They tried to put her on the ATV, but she was too weak to hold on.  The trio remembered a cabin owned by an old rancher and promised they'd be back with help.    

   And here's part of the story that reminds me so much of my own mom, and of an etiquette, class and sense of propriety that is all but forgotten today.  I'll turn to the writer at the NCN whose description of this scene first made me laugh aloud in the midst of such a tragic story.

 
   "They directed a sheriff's helicopter to the site and found that Chretien had cleaned the van, packed her bags, and even fixed herself up. She was waiting for them with her purse over her shoulder, ready to go.
"I was shocked to see her like that," Chad Herman said. "She was like a different person."

   Rita was taken to a hospital in Idaho falls, ID where they nourished her body and met with overjoyed family...family that she and Albert had raised and instilled that same strong faith in, family that (along with their church family) had been praying and fasting for them to be found.  Now, they were staring directly into the eyes of the woman they had all but given up for dead.  Their joy was mixed with heaviness.
    Albert was still out there.

    And, so he remains today unfound and somewhere in the thawing 6.3 million square miles of snow capped mountains, steep cliffs and forested wilderness.  The family, the church, two countries and my small family are praying for that next miracle.  As much as we pray, we know that survival under those elements are unlikely.  But we still pray...
   So, for now, as searchers scour the northern Nevada country side on foot, horseback and by air, I reflect on what we can learn from this story.   First, we have to look at the incredible faith of this woman, this strong mother and wife with such confidence in her savior that she did not blame him, but clung to him, praised him, wrote to Him in the midst of her trails and said she felt Jesus sitting in the seat beside her.  I pray for a faith like that.  But, I wonder when I don't even fully trust Him in the smallest things in life, in my daily stresses, how I would trust Him to pull me through such a  situation?  Would I blame Him?  Would I be angry with Him?  Or would those daily prayers and verses echo in that van and give birth to a faith like Ritas?  I pray so.

The second lesson from this blessed sister is her sheer will to survive.  Our first response in such a situation is also to survive.  How many times does that adrenaline kick in when faced with challenges?  Someone breaks into our home and attacks us and our mind starts running through options, devising plans, a way out.  We're diagnosed with cancer, and we immediately begin fighting.  But, I think that given enough pressure, given enough conflict, we face the strong desire to simply give up.  I can't go on, can't take it anymore, can't do it anymore, I won't do it anymore.  And we stop living, we give up fighting, put our dreams on a shelf, were so overcome with an emotinoal, physical and mental exhaustion that we freeze time for months or years at a time.  We forfeit our own lives, loose all hope and simply stop trying.  How easy would it have been for Rita to stop drinking, stop moving, and give way to her situation altogther? But, she did not.
   We can also learn from two of their mistakes, the greatest mistakes in all their life in fact...first, was in not telling anyone were they were going.  Had they shared with their children, their friends, their neighbor even their plans, the route they were planning on taken, and promised to stay in touch, then those friends would have been able to share with the rescue team very early on, where they were headed, where to look.  Without someone knowing where they were going, no one could help.
   I think of Aron Ralston, the young man who went off hiking in Arizona canyon lands and ended up getting his arm wedged in-between a boulder and a canyon wall.  As the hours ticked by, he realized no one knew where he was, he had neglected the most basic survival skill of all.  127 Hours later, he had to cut off his own arm in order to survive.
   Do people know where you are going?  Do you live in community with others?  Do you have at least one person that you confide in, that knows you and can watch out for you?  Does someone have your back?
   The final and worst mistake that they made was in trusting a faulty source for direction.  In their case, it was their new toy, their GPS.  It shows the roads after all, how could it be wrong?  But showing the roads and knowing the roads are two very different things.  Had they stopped and asked someone who had been through the area before, consulted a travel guide they would have surely been given better advice on the backroads, first hand knowledge that would have saved them.
What leads you in life?  What is your road map?  Are you driven by the latest trends and fads or do you learn from those who have gone before you?  Do you seek council from those who have gone before you?  If you are getting married, do you jump in head first or ask a couple married for forty years what their secret is?  If you were given a guidebook for life that would guarantee the correct path, give wisdom and shed insight on life, would you read it, would you follow it?
As we continue to pray for the Creitchen family, please keep the following in mind:
1. Maintain and grow your Faith.
2. Keep the will to survive.
3. Live in community with others
4. Choose your roadmap in life carefully