On Christmas Eve we went to this “waterfall” it wasn’t really a waterfall but a really nice swimming hole. You could cliff jump, swim, and there was even a little zip line thing to do into the water!
We all were walking on the trail to the swimming hole when nikkie (a missionary here at global) stepped to the side and said “Okay this is where it’s at”. I had no idea what he was talking about but then soon found the tallest cliff you can jump off of. I am not the greatest with measurement but I was probably around 60 feet.
Everyone else continued down the trail to the swimming hole while nikkie, Kat (a squad mate),and I stayed at the top of this cliff. I really couldn’t see all of the water from the top and I did not know what it looked like from the bottom. Nikkie jumped off the cliff and didn’t die. I was up next. I heard my team mates and squad mates saying all the comments “Its so tall. I don’t know emmy. Do it. Remember to jump out. Wow it’s tall. You can do it.” I am not going to lie I was a little scared. Me and Kat had to hype ourselves up to jumping off ha. Well after about two minutes I stepped to the ledge counted to three and jumped. I screamed a little bit, hit the water, and swam to shore. It was a lot of fun. I ended up having an amazing day at the swimming hole. Did the zip line, jumped from smaller cliffs, and sun tanned. Well the third time I went up to the big cliff to jump I was looking forward to it and knew what it was like. While walking up there with nikkie he told me he was surprised how fearless I was and it reminded him not to judge a book by its cover. I stepped off the cliff for the last time with no fear really. Hit the water came up and realized I can choose to be fearless. I can be bold. I can be strong.
Yes cliff jumping may be stupid but lately God has been teaching me to be fearless and to say yes to his challenges!
On Saturday God challenge me to talk to a stranger and to trust him to bring a person to me. Well through out the day Sunday I talked to a women at church. Talked to the lady who cleaned the grocery store. And talked to a lady at the beach. I trusted God to let me see people around me who needed to be seen and in only one there was three ladies.
Alot of people would say being in South Africa away from your family for Christmas to serve Jesus was also stupid like jumping of a cliff. Yet I choose to be here and share Jesus as well I can. So like jumping off that cliff today I may not see the entire plan God has for me but I know he has called me to fearlessly love people and to boldly listen to his voice. Like stepping up to ledge it will be a little scary to trust God’s voice. Yet when I listen to His sweet voice I will come out of it more confident of the God I serve and will mostly likely have a story as well.
We all have our own adventures Gods calling us too. They may seem stupid or a little strange but I want to challenge you to do it!
I leave you with this statement which has been challenging me the last 2 weeks. “What if we stopped defining our life from what we run from and start defining our life by what we run to.”
