Back home, I loved hiking. When I lived in Kennesaw, my gal Haley & I would take quick road trips up to North Georgia or Tennessee & often spend our Saturdays exploring.
Hiking offers such a break from the real world. You get to escape reality for a second, breathe in new, fresh air & see the Lord’s creation. I feel close to Him in nature because I get to see His intentionality within creation. Even the smallest things, a bird flying overhead, a certain leaf, a rock formation, an intricate spider web; whatever it is, somethings I can recognize that I may be the only person to see it in that instance, however it impacts me, I often know it’s a wink from God.
A moment to stop and reflect on how good He is, even in the smallest things.
Here in Lesotho, my host family has two sons. They’re 15 & 17 and they’re the lil bros I never had. They’re insane and super fun. One loves all things exploring and animals and the other loves mountain biking. In this, I have firsthand hiking buds that can show me around the land. We’ve gone up mountains and through valleys searching for waterfalls and bouldering peaks to find the best views. We’ve passed numerous amounts of cows, heards of sheep, horses, birds, and colorful grasshoppers.
The 1st week we were here half of our team got sick- we kept joking, “who’s next?”
The 7 ‘patients’ travelled to South Africa last week to hit up a real doctor, and were all starting to feel better- thank the Lord!!!
Then, this past weekend I hadn’t felt super great. I don’t like being sick and don’t really acknowledge when I am (nobody got time for that). Sooo, this weekend people were going hiking, but since I had already gone, I decided I was going to have a rest day and try to get a kick start on healing before I got worse. But, ya girls got FOMO (fear of missing out) and once it was stated that it wasn’t a strenuous hike to a waterfall, I forgot the rest and jumped in the car to go.
The hike ended up being a 7 mile trek through a valley over small mountains in the straight sun all to find a parched waterfall. Pretty strenuous. Sure the view wasn’t insane- but walking through the valley was. It was beyond beautiful , we walked through herds of sheep, climbed over massive rock formations, kept randomly finding cows within the bush, and just had fun together. It wasn’t until I ran out of water and we decided to take the ‘short cut’ home that I started to remember I was sick. The short cut was straight up a mountain in the African sun. I got to the point where I wasn’t talking to anyone because my throat hurt so bad. Since the land is so dry, and we are in the valley, dirt clouds are all over, so even breathing in hurt. I was walking up the mountain keeping to myself and just praying to the Lord for strength because I was s t r u g g l i n g. At one point I found a local village’s water spout and ran up to it only to find it dry.
The Lord reminded me of Ephesians 3:20:
20Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.
So I took the encouragement and started walking a little faster to hopefully reach the end soon. Yeah I had a sore throat and was ‘dying’ in the heat- but I knew I could do it.
After I left the empty watering hose, I made eye contact with a little girl. She looked sick too. She had dried snot on her upper lip & her skin looked dry. She came up to me and said, “Hello, I’m hungry”
This broke my heart. At least when I walk through the village during ministry I can offer my water, but I didn’t even have that to give. I didn’t have any snacks or anything to give her. I just looked at her and apologized, gave her a quick smile as she ran off to the people behind me who were also trekking up the mountain. If you feel led, pray for this sweet girl and the people of Lesotho. Pray for dependence on the Lord and provision.
In the midst of me feeling ‘sorry for myself’ or stressed that I didn’t have water and in my dramatic self ‘dying’ to make it to the top of the mountain because I was guaranteed water, I was reminded that my circumstances are temporary. Yeah I was having a hard time, but there was an end to it. These people live day to day. Their everyday is as hard as the temporary time I was having, but in that, the Lord takes care of His children. He’s watching all of us, intentionally placing us, and carrying for all of us.
