On Friday January 31st, my team got invited to go camping with the local people we had been working with. We were all so excited to go! Not only did it mean an adventure, but it was an adventure to grow even closer to the locals we had been building close relationships to! What better way to do that then sitting around a campfire singing campfire songs?
After we got to the camping grounds, we soon realized we were going to have to hike. We just didn’t know what this hike consisted of. After walking for about 10 minutes, our hike went from steadily going uphill by gravel rocks to a much higher incline of grass and mud. I laughed in my head because last time I hiked in mud with the people around me (at training camp), I sprain my ankle. To make matters more challenging, I was fasting that day. For me, that looked like only drinking water for the day. I was not looking forward to what was ahead of me, but I have come to learn God always has a little something to teach us when our eyes our opened and focused on Him. (Which is the whole purpose of me fasting).
We started climbing up the hill and it was not that bad…until it was. I found myself becoming very light headed and I was frustrated with God. “Lord, you knew we would be hiking, why would You ask me to fast today?” I kept questioning God, and then He answered. As I became lightheaded and literally felt like I was going to throw up, He told me to lean on Him when things get difficult. Side note: I was experiencing spiritual warfare through dreams at this point, so I knew He was telling me to trust Him. He also pressed into me that times are going to be hard, really hard, and am I to stop obeying Him in the difficult times? At this point I was even more annoyed. I knew He was right, but why teach me this way?? Every time I thought I was going to pass out from being so lightheaded, we would be at the top of a hill to take a break before moving on. In these times God told me He has me. Trust Him. Eventually we got to the top, and the view was amazing. I looked around and could understand why God did this. He told me that He was with me. All the time. To obey Him when He ask me to do something without knowing the future, to trust Him when things get hard because things will be difficult even if we follow His paths in obedience, and that when we do decide to obey and trust the Father, we will see that the outcome is more beautiful then we could ever imagine. The learning did not stop here, though.
We had so much fun that night with friends, although I was pretty sick most of the time we were there. The following day we left. On the way home, traffic was insane. We were standstill several different times for various amounts of time. Frustrated, our host that was driving decided to take a different route. When we did this, the route ended up being closed off. While backing out, we ran into a ditch and got stuck. In this moment, I just laughed. We were all ready to be home, but it seemed like the day kept getting worse. One of the locals came over to us because they had seen what had happened and helped us build a ramp to get us out. We got back into the vehicle and started going back on the first route we were on with the traffic. Just for some perspective, a trip that took us 30ish minutes the first time, took us around 3 hours due to the traffic and the detours. The Lord spoke to me again about obedience and trust. “Even though following Me is hard and may be tempting to detour off at times, trust me. If not, you will end up in a bigger mess, but I show grace. I will be with you in the mess you get yourself in from going off the path I have for you and help you out. Remember, there are natural consequences for going off the route, but I will get you home safely.”
He is so sweet to me. Learning to say yes to The Lord, obeying and trusting in what He ask, has not been an easy lesson for me, but WOW I am thankful for it. Especially the part where He allows me grace and walks with me through it all. He is present and never leaves. “You’re never going to let, you’re never going to let me down” is something I have been singing over and over lately. I love proclaiming that truth over my life. God will never let me down. He is so, so good.
