Tuesday we set off to meet up with a team who are living about 5-ish hours away and then we all go together to dive off of a bridge together. Right away, I realized that this “time to rest” did not mean to rest my physical body. To get anywhere out of the village my team and I live in, we have to hike about 30 minutes to the bus station. Once we got to the bus station, this time, we cram into a small bus for about 1 hour, get off and speed walk to the other bus station to get seats for a 4 hour bus ride.
(Side note: During this 4 hour bus ride, we were told our prayer life would increase because we will be driving on the most dangerous road in Nepal and of course we were all for that!)
I planned on sleeping during this time, but the combination of body odor from other passengers and the lack of shocks in the bus while hitting bigger-than-my-body potholes made it entirely impossible. We finally get to meet up with the other team, get some Caza (snack), have team time/feedback, then have a church service and then all go to sleep for what was to be a monumental moment in a lot of our lives the next day. We wake up and we are all starting to get nervous. After tea and Cana (Nepalese lunch or American’s breakfast), we go to get on our “private bus” which turns out to be just a truck that we have to fit about 16 or more people in and the ride is about an hour to the bungee. Once we get there we have to walk across the bridge we will be jumping from to get signed in. Once people started seeing the height, we were all getting nervous. I was called to go first and I was so pumped! I’m lead out to the middle of the bridge and get strapped into a seat to get my ankle straps on and the bungee snapped in place. One of the guys then lead me out to the ramp where below me was a raging river and huge, rocky mountain sides to the left and right of me.
Before I go on, let me back up and explain that our “training” for this beforehand was a man speaking extremely fast and one of the only things I remembered him saying was “…and once you reach the bottom grab hold of the bamboo stick. Do not let go of the bamboo stick until the men below come and get you. If you let go, the river is very high and that could be very bad…” So bamboo stick is very important… got it.
So, after noticing the raging river below me, I spot the bamboo stick. Without even realizing what is happening, the guy starts counting “1…2…3…JUMP” and that’s when my mind just shut off and my body just took over. I literally just walked off the plank to the raging rapids below (next jump I do I’ll actually jump haha). The first 2 seconds of the free fall was me regretting this decision and seeing my life flash before my eyes. The last 5 seconds of my free fall was pure bliss. After we all went, we decided to take a trip to the Tibet border. All and all, it was a great day.
…..
But even with all those amazing opportunities I was able to do and that many people never get to do in their lifetimes, that night was a struggle for me. I happened to have sprained my knee sometime during the day, so hiking or climbing up steps became very difficult. The room we stayed in was very big, which was so nice, but covered in bugs. When I was getting ready for bed that night, I first had to kill about 11 bugs (sizes ranging from super tiny to as big as my pinky finger) just so I could lay down my sleeping pad. I get that all situated and a bug flies right into my mouth and when I start spitting it out that’s when another bug goes right directly into my eye. I’m not having a good time at this point. So I get all the bugs out of my mouth and eye and hop into my sleeping bag liner, cover my eyes with my Buff and turn on the music to drown out any negative thoughts I was having. Then the power goes out… which means no fans… which means a very hot night. I finally do go to sleep and the morning comes soon enough. I roll over to grab my stuff for some quiet time (bible and notebook) which was placed right by my right arm when I noticed it… rat poop…right on my notebook. It wasn’t there before I went to bed which meant that a rat was crawling probably on me that night because my book was literally right next to my arm…. Great. I get up, dump it outside and go to my quiet spot for that morning (a bridge over some rushing rapids between two mountains)
Usually, I can sit there and be content, but not this time. I was not fulfilled in the least. I wanted more but how could I ask for more when I just did all those amazing things? And more of what exactly? I literally just got to cross something off of my bucket list, I should be on cloud nine right now! My heart was aching and I started to just pray. I felt so dumb because right when I started to pray, that’s when I knew…
I could do all the amazing things off my bucket list. I could travel the world 10 times over. I could meet the man of my dreams and have some world changers for children…
but all I truly needed was my Dad.
A teammate encouraged me with a note earlier in the week. Here is just a part of it:
“Over the next few months you’ll discover so much more of the intimacy of the Lord because it’s never-ending. Jesus will open the door to your knocking. It’ll be the ease as with talking with an old friend. You’ll sit by the fire and hearth with the snow moseying down outside, with a hot cup of coffee in hand, a comfy couch and nothing but conversation with Jesus. There will be joys and laughter, tears and warm words of encouragement and confident and constant affirmation over you throughout.
It’s not that you don’t have intimacy now but there’s always more. Always.”
I want to just be with God. I want to just sit and talk with Him. My heart desires nothing else but to see His face and to hear Him speak. I prayed this morning just for Him and He always comes through. I have felt His loving embrace all day. The peace that only comes from a Father comforting His child.
It just took me to go bungee jumping in Nepal to realize that no matter what I get to do in life, all I really need in life is my Dad.
(IF you ever get the chance to bungee jump though, DO IT. It’s a blast.)
