On one of our days off my team decided to take a little road trip to a nearby waterfall. The seven of us plus our ministry contact, Noki, crammed into a van. This seriously turned into one of the bumpiest car rides I had ever been on and my motion sickness decided to make it’s first World Race appearance. 


Due to construction the waterfall was closed so Noki started to take us up this huge hill. The Dominican Republic heat mixed with extreme nausea from the van ride mixed with walking uphill for what seemed like forever was not really helping me out much. So, after we made it all the way up we seriously just turned around and went back down. And in case anyone was wondering, walking downhill while being nauseous is just as bad of a feeling as walking uphill. 


Noki then led us to the river so we could all get in the water for a little bit. I’m not really sure what I would call that little adventure. It was more like slide down than a hike down. Before we trekked down I thought, how in the world am I going to get back up here? I’ve never rock climbed before and if clumsiness was a spiritual gift I would be full of it. My teammates assured me I would be fine, so I put my fears aside and went down. 

Being down in the water was wonderful. The water was so cold and it was really beautiful down in the river. After being down there for about an hour it was time to head back up to where we were going to be eating. So began the adventure of how I almost fell down a cliff but my teammates saved me.


Everything started off kind of okay. It was just a matter of some rock climbing and trying to remember not to look down. I am so thankful for the patient manner my teammates encouraged me with and helped me by using a book bag as a place to put my foot or using a towel to pull me up. We were about 10 feet away from the main road when I lost grip of the towel and I fell a few feet down facing the river. My fear of heights then began to really kick in. I just felt so mentally and physically drained. I knew there was no way I was going to be able to get up the rest of the way on my own, I was just lacking the strength. After catching a breath, my teammates poured so much love and encouragement into me, convinced me that it was possible to reach the top, and helped pull me up the rest of the way. Bekah even literally laid herself down facing the dirt and told me I could climb up her if I needed to.

Amongst the chaos of that day I felt strangely blessed by the experience. God has really been working on breaking me of my pride and my unwillingness to ask for help. I needed to learn that community is so essential. I needed to learn that even though it may feel like you are stuck on a mountain we have people who take on our weight and burden to pull us through. We were never meant to be alone and I think for the first time I’m finally realizing what God’s plan for community is meant to look like.
