Monday- January 8, 2007.
I’ve now been a World Racer for over a week. One down; 44 to go. After my first bout with stomach problems and dehydration over the weekend, I can now say that I’m not really counting down the time. I was able to post a brief blog a few days ago and send out some “prayer grams” about my sickness. With all of you at home praying for me and a bunch of faithful warriors praying for me here the Lord brought relief to me last night and I feel great today.
We are still in Palenque. We are staying in a wonderful facility; a retreat center for national pastors. The weather is cool (literally), the bugs aren’t too bad (but note the picture of the really large Tarantula), and we have a kitchen, bathrooms and showers. This is a great environment for us to receive more training from a very passionate group of leaders (Seth Barnes, Gary Black and Andrew Shearman).
Yesterday we attended a church in Royal Palenque- a small village in the nearby mountains. Think Smokies but with more rugged, pointy peeks and less haze- absolutely beautiful even if I was too sick to fully enjoy it. They literally killed the fatted calf for us. I think the whole village must have turned out for it, kind of like a youth event with free pizza. To be fair, I think it was also a holiday- 3 Kings Day- celebrating the arrival of the Magi to honor baby Jesus. The people were beautiful and very hospitable but difficult to communicate with. At one point there were three translations of the sermon- English, Spanish and then Chole?- a dialect of the Maya descendants in this area of Mexico.
After church we spent the rest of the day at Aqua Azul. Blue Water. The most beautiful series of cascading waterfalls I have ever seen. If you know me then you know I love mountains and waterfalls! What a cool place. Notice the picture of the Warning Sign: Dangerous Not to Swim. Of course there’s something lost in translation there, but then again, maybe not. I just happened to be walking with Seth when we encountered this sign and he said it first- there’s a lot of truth to that. When we are about doing and being God’s will on earth, it is dangerous NOT to swim. Do you get it? The real danger isn’t in jumping in and getting wet or even getting hurt or drowning. The real danger is in never jumping in at all! If we don’t jump, we sit on the rail and watch the river of life go by and perhaps most sadly- miss the will of God for our lives. Never experiencing HIM. Never being caught up and swept away by HIM.
I’m glad for the times in my life when I wasn’t content to sit on the rail. I’m glad I jumped in when I was first offered a Youth Ministry position. I’m glad I jumped in to go to Seminary and to Gulfport. I’m glad I jumped in and married Kim even though I knew we wouldn’t grow old together. And I’m glad I jumped into the World Race. I have a feeling I will face that choice- to jump or not to jump- over and over this year.
