Now to the waterfall… which is what I was first thinking about as I described all that I was amazed by at the beginning of my last blog.
Saturday, the 20th, was the most amazing day I have had in Honduras yet (as far as the physical goes in comparison to the spiritual)! I am still amazed by how quickly the Lord can work (see my blog "And then they prayed to receive Christ" if you don't know what I'm talking about :)).
My team decided to go on an adventure this weekend and had the opportunity to do all of the following in just one day!
We started by going tubing down a slightly crazy and cold river to a big beautiful and warm lake where only two crocodiles live.
Our guides mentioned that tid bit after we arrived and had begun to do a little rock climbing, so we could go cliff jumping. The cliff was probably a little shy of 24 feet and it was my first time rock climbing and cliff jumping so I was a little nervous, but really excited. I had my teammates give me a countdown both times, which was helpful.
The lake was so warm and nice that just wanted to stay and swim all day. I even thought about the fact that we planned on going to the waterfall after lunch and thought "there will be other waterfalls.."
But our guides said that we had to go back, so we swam upstream a little ways in the freezing river and then stomped about to scare off the snakes in our flooded walkway. Praise the Lord that I was at the back of the group and didn't hear the guide say that! We made our way through "cow dung alleyway," which to our pleasant surprise didn't have any cows walking in it (we were told that sometimes they have to push the cows toward the side so they are able to walk through).
After eating lunch, we began to get ready for our next adventure to the falls. We didn't know if we should wear our swimsuits or tennis shoes or what so we asked one of the employees where we were staying. She said that tennis shoes might be a good idea just in case it was a little slippery, but said we definitely didn't need our swimsuits and that we probably wouldn't even get wet… maybe a little splash from the falls. So when we arrived and the guide at the waterfalls shook his head at our cameras and pulled out a pair of goggles, we looked at each other and laughed as we wondered what we were getting ourselves into. Our guide pointed to his waist and said the water would probably be at least that high. That was when I realized that the woman we had spoken to must have never gone on the guided tour of the falls before.
As we approached the waterfalls, I began to feel the mist.. I thought "if this is just the beginning, then I won't be dry much longer."
But it was so worth it.
Shortly after starting on our adventure, our guide jumped into a small pool in the falls and waved motioning for us to follow. I was the last in line, so I was eager to jump in and join the rest of my completely drenched team. Jumping in there was one of the highlights of my day. I loved the entire time that we spent at the falls. My other favorite was after walking around and across various rocks, making a human chain to avoid getting swept away by the water and getting pounded by the waterfall, we were in instructed to look up, which was hard with all of the water splashing in my eyes. But as we did we saw that the waterfall was pouring right over us. It was absolutely amazing. I wanted to stay there longer, but our guide kept us moving right along.
As I was in and under the enormous and mighty waterfall I thought about how much bigger and powerful my Heavenly Father is. I thought about how fierce His love is and how He continuously pours His love and grace on me. I was in complete awe.
& I still am when I think about it.
Please pray for my whole team [Brant, James, Shayna, Jessica, Katie and me of course :]] that we would all continue to strive for loving one along sacrificially and continuously. Pray that we would continue to make our team a safe place where we can be honest and vulnerable with each other.
As for me, please continue to pray that I would continually be experiencing more and more intimacy with Him, as well as savoring each day and being wholly content and abounding in joy. <3
