The Broken Feet Upon the Mountain
It’s Month 1 of The World Race. We live in the middle of the mountains, 2 hours drive from any town. The natives call it The Mountain Kingdom. I’ve fallen in love with being a nomad. I want to say I could do it forever, but that would probably be a lie.
This month’s ministry is Africa 4 Jesus – located deep in the valley of Malealea, Lesotho surrounded by hundreds of mountains. We sleep on floors, drink from spring water that we fetch ourselves, and bucket bathe once every week or so. We live in constant community, walk off base to use a long drop, brush our teeth off the side of a mountain, and take advantage of the growth it’s brought us.
Life is beautiful in the midst of the mountains, but it’s not always easy. It’s hard when you’re woken up at 3am by a leaking roof while it’s pouring outside and you have to use the long drop – but I don’t regret being able to see thousands of stars and the Milky Way in what seems to be inches away from my face. It’s hard when you want to listen to music or take photos of the incredible scenery and there’s no way to charge a phone – but I’ll never take for granted the opportunity to dig deep in the Word and prayer, distraction free.
For ministry we hike one hour off the beaten path to a remote village. There we build relationships, help people in their homes and fields, pray over the sick, read scripture to the blind, and sing with children.
One day as I walked through the village, I saw a woman from a distance sitting in front of her home, for some reason I was instantly reminded of the verse
Isaiah 52:7 – how beautiful upon the mountain are the feet of those who bring good news
She was smiling and waving, so I approached her. She didn’t speak any English, but she talked to me as if there was no language barrier. She then pointed to her leg and took off her blanket, revealing a broken foot. She asked us to pray over her foot. I shared the verse with her, telling her it reminded me of her and that she has neighbors who have never heard the name of Jesus, and she was the beautiful feet with the good news.
Fast forward to several days later. The Shepherd boys at our ministry lead a discipleship/Bible class in a village further away. They go twice a week and it is a 2 hour hike. We agreed to join them. We had no idea what was coming.
The hike was very strenuous. I’m talking an 80 degree mountain straight down. We had no warning of this. We were sliding down this mountain, unable to grip our feet. We had to cross streams, jump over gaps, and even crawl through rocks. Thank goodness for training camp slightly preparing me for a time such as this. Almost 3 hours later we eventually arrived to the village and had the discipleship class. We had about 40 people packed into a room the size of my bedroom back home. Children, elderly, and people of all ages in between came to hear the Gospel being taught. It was remarkable! But with few hours of sunlight left, we needed to head back to base. We didn’t have 3 hours before nightfall, so the Shepherd boys said we needed to take a faster route. Basically this meant straight up a mountain.
I stood before this mountain, my flesh saying “there’s no way.”
My teammates encouraged one another that we could do it. So in unity, we moved forward. We reached a point that required straight up rock climbing – literally. One hand and one foot in front of the other, step by step, we moved forward encouraging one another along. When times got really hard and our feet began to weaken and slip, the Shepherd boys took our hands and guided us along. We eventually made it to the top, seeing so much beauty along the way. We conquered that mountain together.
I think this is a lot like our walks of life. Times will be hard to walk through, and there will be valleys and mountains along the way. If I didn’t call on Jesus and have a firm community around to guide me, I would have given up. We are broken people, and our feet were not created to walk alone. Our foundation is in Christ alone.
My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.
For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
I am encouraged by the joy of our friend in the village with the broken foot. Her face radiates much joy, and her words speak mighty wisdom. This race will sometimes be hard and look impossible, but He makes our paths straight and strengthens our broken feet along the way.
