Sometimes the World Race is downright stinkin fun.
There are always random days throughout the month where it feels as if God just shows up with a large cheese pizza with a Dr Pepper, 2 unlimited day passes to an arcade with laser tag that he just happened to stumble upon, and all 3 seasons of Arrested Development. Hallelujah.
This month, that day revealed itself in the form of an epic camping trip to Da Lat in Vietnam. Now, Ho Chi Minh city is great in all with its overcrowded streets, perpetual noise, persistent vendors, unique smells, polluted alleys, and extremely high levels of air pollution, but Da Lat takes home the trophy. Easily. Da Lat rests in the middle of the highlands of Vietnam, which means it looks and feels almost exactly like Colorado in the spring. (I never thought Vietnam would have pine trees) Its beautiful, and the air is crisp and clean. If you haven't caught on yet…I'm a bit of a naturalist. So, for God to pull me out of a busy city into a place that resembles Colorado, the landscape my heart longs for and my prayers prayed for all month, was a bit like Him showing up at my door with a pizza. He's good. 3 months running.
However, sometimes fun requires sacrifice. That sacrifice is called the sleeper bus…or the no sleeper bus. The sleeper bus is a box of metal that contains top and bottom layers of extremely confined chairs that reduce movement while sleeping to zero, and recline at a perfect angle to make it seem comfortable for 15 minuets while is slowly destroys every muscle in your back. You can't sleep. And I didn't. I got 1 to 2 hours of napping. In conclusion, the 14 of us that went started our day with a glass of fresh exhaustion and neck pains. Hazaa!
But God made this day for fun.
The fun began at a place called Elephant Falls. No, that's not a trendy, yet slightly exotic Houston suburb…it's an actual waterfall. Of course, waterfalls by themselves are kinda boring after 3 minutes, but the hike down to the bottom…my words will not suffice. After a few bridges and steep steps, we found our way into the world of Indiana Jones. Here's some pics.
Almost immediately, the young boy in me came out and I had to explore everything. A cave first caught my eye. After crawling through some vines (seriously) and over some rocks, me and a few others ended up right at the base of the massive waterfall getting blasted by strong gusts of wind and water. Score! It was so powerful. The highlight of my explorations actually occurred a little bit downstream, and I wasn't the first to get there. What I had found was mother natures challenge course for all mankind: a series of water cut rock ascending higher and closer to the roaring waterfall. For an hour we climbed the extremely slippery rock like kids in view of a giant waterfall surrounded by an Indiana Jones natural film studio with strong rapids roaring below. Thats gonna be a good start to your day every time. Natures coffee.
But that wasn't the end of it. We still has to get to our camp site. Little did we know that our camp site was 4km up a mountain trail and we had our packs on and we were running out of daylight. It took 3 hours to get to the top and it was night time when we got there. Remember, we are all working on a good two hours of sleep. We were spent. Just done. Sweat was everywhere. Still, we set up our tents for the first time on the whole race (yeses!!) and proceeded to build a fire! It was awesome! The night sky opened up and we got to see so many stars, and we got an amazing view of the city lights. Plus, it was cold! We actually needed a fire in Vietnam! Then, we closed the night off with some worship under the stars and, as the fire died, we called it a night. My heart was full.
Sometimes the World Race can be downright stinkin fun. Our God makes life that way. To be enjoyed. To have your heart filled on certain days that seem more glorious than the others. I thought that being a missionary would take away days like today that I've cherished since boyhood, but I'm actually finding God amplifies it. Serving God is not a chore for a period of time, but a lifestyle that overflows from the core of who you are, the heart, and I'm finding that God is encouraging me throughout the race to do what wakes my heart to live and stirs my affections for Jesus. God is interested in the uniqueness of my heart. He is outrageously in love with it! So, He takes care of it. Did you ever thank the God of the hymnal music and pipe organ is also the same God who is glorified by a day of climbing rocks and camping? Neither did I. But he is.
