So if you know me, (Josh) you know that I like to really process things and think about what I want to say before I say it. This is not a bad thing, but I have been encouraged to speak out more and be a bigger voice in our blogs. I realized that with the exception of a couple of blogs, I have been mostly silent, so I apologize for that and am going to try to take up the challenge of speaking up more and being more of a voice. So here is one of my experiences that I have decided to share:
A few weekends ago while we were still in Guatemala, our squad had a retreat to the beautiful Lake Atitlan. It is surrounded by huge, beautiful volcanoes and quaint villages that live off the tourism there. It is a beautiful, tropical environment, and a few of our squadmates, 10 in all, myself included, decided to hike one of the volcanoes. It's name is San Pedro. It is dormant, and is about 9,000 feet tall. We took the boat to the village of San Pedro, and then took a taxi-truck to the beginning of the trail.
As we started on the trail, we were excited and full of energy. After a while, as you can imagine, we got really tired. The trail was slick and intense. The incline was difficult, but we were really enjoying seeing the canopy and wildlife. It was very much like the rainforests of the Northwest, I was told by Kaitie Lanting, one of the girls that went with us and is from Washington State. We made many stops, because we were so tired and the journey was hard. The guides were telling us that we needed to hurry because the clouds were going to shroud the mountain and we wouldn't be able to see the view from the top.
As we continued along, I kept hearing God say, "Take your time, take care of your body, don't push it. Just enjoy the journey and I will part the clouds when you get to the top. As we neared the top, I noticed the clouds were moving in and we couldn't see the lake below any longer. We made one last stop and prayed for strength to finish the journey and one of the guys spoke up and said "Guys, I just feel like God is telling me that He's going to part the clouds at the top. We just need to take our time." A few others, including myself agreed, and we prayed an thanked God in advance for what He was going to do.
We got to the top of the mountain, and as we reached the cropping of rocks that indicate the end of the trail. At just that moment the clouds, lifted up over our heads and revealed the most fantastic view, more beautiful than can be described. We praised God and just soaked it in. I love it when God does awesome things like that and I hope to share more similar experiences.
