Here’s a bit of the obvious for you: missionary life isn’t always glamorous. In the one week of being on The World Race, I’ve gotten some pretty rank whiffs (sometimes just by smelling myself), I’ve literally washed a brown film from my body on a daily basis, I’ve seen food for consumption that cause my American Agriculture brain to instantly scream, “RUN OR GET THE RUNS!” and I’ve spent much of the time simply craving a bath!
*Note, I literally have to coach myself into stepping under the steady flow of COLD shower water each day. It’s kind of comical. I stand in the shower, covered in sweat and grime that practically beg to be rinsed away, and literally speak aloud, “Okay Ashlee, you can do this. One, Two, Three, Go!” I spin into the COLD downpour and breath literally leaves my lungs for a few seconds while I sputter and shiver and gasp and lather as quickly as possible. And then it’s all over and either I go numb or the reprieve from the incessant heat is so nice that I forget how cold it is. I ENJOY myself; I DON’T sweat for a few minutes.
One awesome aspect of The World Race is the ever-anticipated day off! After a week full of school visits, painting, pulling weeds (Yay, allergic reactions!), playing with kiddos, Bible study, etc. my team and I were fully prepared for a wild and crazy day, befitting the team culture we are so proud to call our own!
Yesterday (9/14/12), the Dunamisses hiked to a waterfall hidden deep (2 hours deep to be precise) in the mountains that surround the city of Azua, Dominican Republic. I never cease to be amazed by how dingy and dirty I can become along a hike – my Red River Gorge camping/climbing buddies can certainly attest – it is slightly disgusting. After every bit of two hours tromping through riverbeds, exercising some serious skill to stay upright in a few steep places, pouring buckets of sweat from places sweat should never be, smacking hundreds of mosquitoes and gnats, avoiding numerous piles of donkey poo, and secretly wondering if we would EVER find this place of refuge we’d so desperately been craving, I was NASTY! I was exhausted. I had to find somewhere to change into a bathing suit in the middle of the woods. And I desperately wanted a bath.
Luckily, our destination proved fairly remarkable. That riverbed we kept crossing flowed straight from a beautiful waterfall, surrounded by two inviting pools of some of the clearest water you could ever hope to see. Even the trickiness of traversing the crazy rock maze and the pains of negotiating my body into two pieces of not-so-flattering nylon couldn’t keep me from heading straight for the water. RELIEF! RENEWAL! REJUVENATION!
HOLY CRAP THAT’S COLD!!! Here we go again with the coaching. I got in thigh deep and watched my teammates, Liz and Becky, heading straight through the pool directly for the waterfall! Shucks. There I stood, shivering, telling myself to keep going but unable to convince my body that the ultimate prize was worth enduring momentary discomfort.
Seriously? I do this WAY TOO MUCH, especially when God is desperately trying to give me something FANTASTIC! I see a prize. I know it’s going to be good. But it’s sometimes painful to get there. It often requires commitment. It almost always demands Faith. Aye aye aye. Sometimes, I think God is screaming, “Ash, you need to WO-MAN UP!”
So I did. Determined that I was not about to miss a chance to get REALLY clean, to fulfill a lifelong dream of swimming under a real-life waterfall, to justify the past two hours of slipping and sliding and clawing my way up a mountain, and to feel the cool, pure cleansing God had offered, I dove and swam against the current to reach my friends.
End result:
We serve a God who put together a beautiful world, who crafted plans for each individual life that include opportunities to observe his majesty first hand, who love every child for who He created them to be and who offers a cleansing like NO OTHER. All you have to do is Dive In and be Washed By the Water.
Be Blessed,
Ashlee
