I’ll start by apologizing for the very long delay between blogs! I’ve had a crazy month with moving around! We did end up making it to Nicaragua around the 8th of July. We drove through Honduras without any problems at all. We’re currently in Jinotepe, Nicaragua staying at a childrens home called the Quinta. We’re having an awesome time hanging out with the teens that live there!
In Antigua, we had the opportunity to climb volcano Pacaya. For those of you who don’t know, one of the items at the top of my to do list for this trip was to roast a marshmallow in lava. After quickly signing up to roast my marshmallow, I realized the only problem with my brilliant plan was that I was actually going to have to climb to the top of a volcano in order to make it happen!! That ended up being a little more difficult than I had imagined. I was worlds behind my other squad mates in hiking skills. If you talk to most world racers they’ll tell you how much they love camping and hiking. Both of which they did for fun at home anyway so this was right up their alley. I on the other hand have pretty much never gone hiking in my entire life. That said, no one warned me. It wasn’t exactly a cup of tea.
Apparently I wasn’t very good at hiding how much I was struggling either because I had one man give me a free walking stick and a string of locals saying “Taxi, Taxi” behind me the whole way. By the way, “taxi” did not refer to a vehicle but rather the rediculously malnourshed horse that could carry me the rest of the way up to the top. I never did it though because I kept thinking “surely we’re almost there” even though we weren’t and I also felt bad for the poor horse. Eventually, we managed to make it to a rest area where I thought I was done.
I kept thinking, it was so worth it! It’s beautiful here! But just kidding! I had only made it half way. They led us around the corner where I was certian was going to be the volcano and the lava only to see a huge mountain left to climb.
I actually wanted to cry when I saw it. I literally almost stopped and sat down and was like “I’m done. No stupid marshmallow is worth this!” The second I thought it a girl from the October squad who was having at least as much trouble as I was started talking to me so I decided I’d go for it. A few bumps, falls, and one rather difficult climb later I had made it to the top.
It was so worth the hike to get to the top! I realized from the beginning that God wanted to teach me something through that hike. I was in it for the marshmallow, not the hike. Lets be honest here, in life most of us are in it with God for the marshmallow. We want all the good stuff he has for us but hate the excrushiating hike to the top. I can’t blame myself for hating all the hard parts in life but I suppose the lesson (almost) learned is that I have to let God lead me through the hard stuff. I can always see an easier way but if I take it then I’m missing out on some of the fantastic things God has for me. It’s going to be worth it.
