We are on a pretty tight budget on the Race, but we don’t let that stop us from taking advantage of every opportunity we’re given. Here is how we pulled off our latest and greatest adventure: Skiing in Armenia!
Step 1: Fly to Armenia.
Step 2: Go to the International Church. Hopefully you will meet a very kind Danish man, perhaps named Peter, or someone who is equally as kind. Somehow, that man will agree to take you and your non-skiing teammates on a full day adventure! That’s it! He’ll handle the rest!
Step 3: Follow the nice man named Sasha, or someone like him, to his car full of gear where you will be fitted with all the necessary ski gear! This should cost you roughly 9000 Dram ($18). The gloves may have holes in them, just go with it.
*Pro tip: Trust Sasha when he recommends a helmet.
Step 4: Follow Peter up the mountain with your other novice friends.
*Pro tip: stay with Peter on your first run…. like REALLY CLOSE. Because if you accidentally start going down he will think you are a confident skier and you will face plant.
Don’t “think you’ve got it” after a few minutes of instruction and decide to head down on your own because waiting on your slower teammates is frustrating. If you do this you WILL spend an hour tumbling down a mountain. This may not seem too terrible, but falling and getting up every 20 ft is exhausting! It will ruin your skiing experience.
Step 5: Learn from your mistakes and give it a second chance. Again, stay with Peter. Look up at the beautiful mountains! Remember what a privilege it is to be here.
There are so many lessons to be taken from my day on the mountain.
How thinking we can do something on our own can lead to hurt.
Not being patient and waiting on the Lord can make a simple task so much harder. It can cause physical pain!
Pride. No explanation needed.
The importance of not giving up.
I will dig into all of those lessons when the wounds aren’t quite so fresh and my muscles have had a chance to recoup.
The lesson I decided to go with is how awesome my God is. Yet again, taking me on an adventure I would have never chosen for myself. And I will use this black eye as a way to remember all of the beautiful places he has taken me and continues to take me.
