PC;Taylor Baker
God was so good to us on this day. He gave us strength to climb to 13,000 feet. He protected us from getting sick by the freezing cold rain and hail. He picked us up when we fell in the mud running down the mountain. He gave us protection from the lightning that struck beside us.
So, you guys are probably curious to what really happened that day.
It was a chilly November morning, hopping on a bus, then into a taxi with six other girls. We got to Mount Pichincha around 10 am and jumped on a tram that brought us up to the base of the mountain. We took a few pictures and began ascending to the tiptop.
As we took our first steps up the ridge of the mountain we were all feeling winded after just ten steps. Our calves were burning and our lungs were huffing and puffing. We kept a good pace but it was a challenge for our team to stay together, some of us wanted to take there time but others wanted to try to make it to the top of each ridge as quickly as possible. We took a couple bathroom breaks, stopped a couple times to catch our breath and ate our lunch. After we stopped for lunch our Ministry Host Manager, Janela, stopped to go to the bathroom in the grass. She ended up having a really bad allergic reaction all over her body with little red bumps all over her legs and stomach. We didn’t realize how serious it was until we came down the mountain though. So I gave Janela something to soothe the irritation on her legs and we kept on hiking.
There were some dark clouds ahead covering the top of the mountain, but we were all determined to make it to the top so we didn’t turn back. We made it more than half way until we got to a point where some of us were just in too much pain. So Janela took us to a spot where we had to climb up over these rocks to get back on the path. We went one by one moving so slow it seemed like we were in slow motion because none of us wanted to slip, and if we did that would have been the end of us. We hiked a few more feet until we met up with these people that we saw earlier. They told us it was snowing up at the top so at that point we didn’t want to put ourselves in any danger and turned around.
We were at the rocks again and had to climb back down and at this point the storm was right above us. We could hear the thunder behind us and the wind was picking up, which made it even harder to breathe. So when we got past the point of having to climb the rocks we started to run. Janela kept stopping and coming back to see if we were all caught up. She would yell, “Run girls, RUN!! Corre chicas, CORRE!!”
The storm was making the ground muddy. It was so slippery we could hardly walk. We were actually inside a storm cloud. The thunder shook our bodies and the mountain was covered in hail chunks the size of peas. As I ran I had a hiking pole to help me balance and keep from falling every step. But as I was running through the tall grass I shoved the pole into a hole, so when I kept going the pole stayed in the ground and I didn’t pull it out quick enough for me to place it in front of me. So when I took the next few steps the pole pulled my arm back and I fell straight onto my side. Mud was covering the whole side of my body, but I had to get up and keep running so I wouldn’t fall behind. Lightning was striking on each side of the path, I was so scared that I was going to get struck with lightning since I had the metal hiking pole and an umbrella in my backpack. After each strike of lightning there was a crash of thunder that was so loud it vibrated the ground beneath our trembling feet.
The cold of the storm was the most pain I’ve felt in my life, (and I live in Michigan for crying out loud). The hail was slapping my face and slicing my hands it was coming down with so much force. My whole body was drenched in freezing cold water and my shoes had pools of water inside. But we made it down the mountain, running and slipping down in only an hour.
So when we got back to the base of the mountain we jumped on a tram and took Janela to the clinic to get her legs and stomach checked out, just to see what the cause of the little bumps were and get her some medicine. When we did get to the clinic we all had to wait another two hours for a taxi to pick us up and for Janela to fully heal. While we waited in our soaking wet clothes we tried to warm up by going to the bathroom and using the hand dryer to warm our hands. Also, the nurse who was helping Janela, filled up plastic gloves with hot water so we could use them to warm our hands and feet.
At the end of the trip we saw that God had been working (like a lot). He protected us, provided warmth for us, kept us healthy and brought us home safely. I found joy in it all. It was such a crazy situation God put us through. By the time we made it halfway down the mountain we were all laughing at each other as we slid and fell. God had made that adventure about joy and trusting that others would pick me up when I fell.
