Change of Plans – Part 1

Right now I should be hiking in the Banaue Rice Terraces. That was the plan.

 

This week up north was designed to be a pilgrimage of sorts. As we hiked the beautiful rice terraces, we were supposed to ATL (ask the Lord). Meaning we would have our eyes and ears open to what the Lord had for us to do or go where he asks us to go. That could mean stepping out in faith and praying for healing, sharing our faith with someone we met on our journey, or getting to know and encourage people as we hike the trails. The week was also intended for a time to reflect and take time to journal about the last 11 months.

 

As the time came closer for us to leave, I was a little worried about going and hiking with my ant bites. Sounds ridiculous I know, but I had over 70 red ant bites from Indonesia that still weren’t healing even after an antihistamine injection, antibiotics and topical ointment. Not only were they not healing, but they got worse in the Philippines. They continued to puss and itch like crazy. With all the dirt and filth here, I ended up having a couple bites on my knee get infected. One was very swollen to the size of a gum ball and the other bite was very hard, tender and throbbed. I ended up going to the hospital and getting more injections, antibiotics, antihistamine pills and topical ointment. I was told to take it easy and avoid going outside too much in order to avoid being exposed to different allergens and bacteria. I was so done with dealing with my bites that I did everything I could to help heal the bites over the next several days.

 

They finally started to look better the day we were supposed to leave for the Rice Terraces. I ventured out in the pouring rain with a teammate that afternoon to buy some more bandaids to go under the ace bandages I grabbed and to go to the ATM. 

 

When we got back to our ministry site, a staff member informed a couple of us that streets in Manila were flooding and it was likely our overnight bus would cancel. He said the rain wasn’t going to stop anytime soon and that it’s monsoon season.

 

A couple of us quickly looked into the weather reports online for here and up north. We found out that there was a typhoon and we were in a red zone for flooding. Up north where we were headed would be even worse.

 

We went into a little panic as we attempted to contact the bus company and leadership back home to figure out what we should do. Because the bus company didn’t answer and it was the middle of the night in the States, we sat in limbo for the next few hours not sure if we were going or not.

 

At 7pm, 30 minutes after we were supposed to leave, our squad leaders made the decision to not leave that night. They felt it was best to wait until tomorrow to talk to leadership back home and possibly try again the following night.

 

I was relieved with their decision. Given the weather reports, I didn’t find it safe or worth it to travel 12 hours to the Rice Terraces when it was likely we wouldn’t even be able to hike.

 

The following morning, after our squad leaders talked to our Squad Mentor, we were told that we were going to have a squad meeting at 4:30pm to ask the Lord what he wanted us to do. To my surprise, when 4:30pm rolled around, I was told that it would be decided on an individual basis as to whether we would go or not. We were asked to spend time in prayer asking the Lord where  he wanted us to be this week.

 

Over the next half hour, as I prayed I was wrestling with the decision. On the one hand, I didn’t want or feel peace about going to the Banaue. But on the other hand, I didn’t want to miss out on the beauty of seeing and hiking the Rice Terraces. I knew that no matter what decision I made, the Lord would be with me, but in the end however I felt like He was telling me to stay.

 

It didn’t take long to find out why.