Imagone walking up a beautiful mountain where you can look out and see the village below or the snow capped mountains in the distance. You are struggling just a bit because you are still out of shape and have never been this far up in altitude so your lungs are burning as well. You don’t complain to much and you just take the breaks needed and are excited when you have accomplished the goal of getting to the top with the rest of your friends. But at a half way point one of the teammates asks you to pick up a fairly big sized rock and continue climbing up the mountain.
At first we thought it was for a burden we might be carrying or a ton of things this rock could symbolize. Once you reach another point one of your other teammates has a broken (or at least we think) toe/foot so you decide to do half squad worship there (we are in all squad month but we’re split in two. Some went south to the “jungle” and my group went west to the mountains.)
After a few songs our leader Dilip asks us to take a few minutes and find one word that describes who God is to us as well as say one thing we love about ourselves. For me God is unconditional and I love that I am outgoing. We all went around the group and said these out loud. We were then told to pray about what our rock could mean for us. Sometimes along life’s journey God calls us to pick up rocks that at first seem like burdens but are things the Lord is calling us to grow in or step out in. For me mine was to love people like God does and to assume the best in people and that they come with the best intentions in mind. We then sang Come to the Alter and put our rocks down and built an Alter. It was very neat to see that and I look down and my rock is heart shaped.
***I am so thankful for everyone of you who have supported me so far. I am not done doing God’s work just yet. I have 9 more months to go. However I am still short of my financial goal. I need about $1200 to be fully funded. I am praying that I can reach this goal by the end of Vietnam!
