Nile river Baptism
(my drop)
As I grasped the rope in front of me with my sweaty palms, I fought to swallow the lump in my throat. There I was, standing 42 meters over the Nile River about to fall backwards and trust two carabiners, about fifteen feet of rope and a bungee to catch me after dipping into the river below.
After a little instruction on where to look, how to fall or jump, and how I’d bungee, I was encouraged by a bible reading and some words by my friends Cody and Erin. I then found myself hoping towards the edge of the platform and trying to pump myself up for my ‘decent’.
The next thing I knew | was standing facing Cody as he said, “I baptize you in the name of the Father-”
My right hand left the rope and reached for my left shoulder.
“The Son-”
My left hand followed in the same fashion as my right, letting go of the shaking rope at the end of my reach.
“And the Holy Spirit.”
I froze for only a moment as my arms formed an X on my chest. I glanced back at Erin, “Be baptized Frank!” she instructed.
I leaned back and felt the weight of the world fall with me as I turned upside down and tried to focus on the approaching water below. I was free falling over 144 ft about to drench myself in the Nile River!
A plethora of emotions ran through my mind.
It certainly was an exhilarating, exciting, scary, sketchy, humbling, uplifting, and adrenaline filled moment.
So what’s next in Franks book of life?
Well I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you that this last week has been one of the toughest weeks on the entire race! We left Jinga (where we bungeed and rafted) and headed for our ministry site in Rackoko (pronounced like “rach-oco”). It was a lot of traveling and a big head ache. Upon arrival to this town, which seemed to be straight out of a country movie with dusty dirt roads, and limited vegetation growing in between cement buildings, I soon realized I was in “the boonies”.
(sunrise yesterday morning on my run)
Today I found myself writing home on an instant messaging app I have on my phone. While sitting in a coffee shop on my phone, I wrote all about my frustrations with this week. About how communicating with my new team members hasn’t been the most fluid thing in the world. I explained my frustrations with the town I’m living in this month, my sleeping arrangements, lack of running water, electricity and beds. How schedules are, the heat, our contact, our meals… I found myself being super critical and negative. I was soon typing “Why do I hate the person I’ve become, I’m so negative, unmotivated, and miserable.”
My friend replied back “Well you just got baptized, I wouldn’t doubt spiritual attack?”
It hit my like a load of bricks. That’s exactly whats going on.
The other day I woke up and the first words outta' my mouth when I stretched out was "shit"… okay wow… you know you're starting your day off right when you got shit on the brain… haha.
So I decided to switch things up a bit. I'm trying to start and end every day in prayer, and in the coming weeks, I plan to be a lot more positive. I wanna get back to having fun, I wanna really invest in my team, and focus on why I came on this race in the first place. I wanna be the solution to the problem… not letting my negativity be a contributor.
Your prayers would be appreciated in this area!
I’ll end with this… Oh how I miss home. I’m here to stay, but wow… this month is, (from a completely positive perspective of course) HARD. haha.
thanks for reading!
