On one of our squads off days while in Nicaragua, a group of us who have adventurous spirits decided to travel to the island of Ometepe to hike the volcano known as Maderas. We arrived to the island and booked a hiking tour with two guides and we were informed that it would take 3 hours to get up the volcano and then 3 hours to hike back down. So off we went at about 2 o’clock with plans on reaching the summit at 5 p.m. But we were sadly led astray. 5 o’clock came and we were no where near the top and our water supply had run dry. As 5:45 rolled around and the sun set, it started to rain. For the next hour and a half we hiked on in the dark while it rained. Finally after over 5 hours of hiking, we reached the lake on top of the volcano. It was dark, cold, and a few people in the group physically could no longer continue. Our only choice was to set up the two tents that we had with us and try to get some sleep. There was a literal cloud that had descended upon the top of the volcano so that night, we slept inside of a cloud. Our guides decided that we would begin the hike down before the sun came up so the trek down began at 5 a.m. and lasted for another 5 hours. Reaching the bottom of the mount with empty stomachs and heavy eyes from lack of sleep, we were ready to begin our adventure back to our ministry location.
In total, we were hiking for roughly 10 hours and during that time we traveled a total of 13.4 miles round trip while climbing in elevation of 1400 meters. This was a hike that pushed our group of young, semi in shape, able bodied individuals to exhaustion and frustration. However, our journey was a walk in the park for a guy like Moses. In Exodus 19 Moses traveled up and down Mt. Sinai 3 times and after reaching the top for the 3rd time God told him to go back down and bring Aaron back up with him. That means there was going to be a 4th trip back up and down the mountain. Mt. Sinai stands at a messily 2300 meters high. Can you imagine having to hike up and down that 4 times? I sure can’t! When God told Moses to go down and bring Aaron back up I would have been thinking “can’t you just tell Aaron to come up here so that I can rest at the top and wait for him?” The fact that Moses was able to make this journey so many times displays the pure strength of God because Moses would not have been able to complete it on his own. Moses must have been completely exhausted and lets not forget that he was 80 years old at this point in his life! After hiking Maderas I can’t imagine how Moses was able to go up and down Sinai so many times. It was a way for God to show Moses and the Isrealites that when trust is placed in him, anything is possible. This lesson is providing me with the mindset to trust God’s process for my life and it allows me to know that it might not always be what I may want most but it will be what is best for me.
