There are a couple of things I’ve learned while being here in Malealea Valley. One, how much I hate hiking. We walk up and down through the hills/mountains in the valley every day. Coming from Florida where we’re just a few feet up to then climbing up mountains and hills at an altitude of about 6,600 ft. makes it just a bit hard to breathe. If you have ever played the video game Zelda, I now know how Link from Breath of the Wild feels when he runs out of stamina so quick. Hiking does have its perks of running into cows, sheep, dogs, and all other kinds of beauties but I just don’t enjoy the actual walking to it.
Two, walking up and down through the valley also made me think of a few verses.
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me” – Psalm 23:4
“Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
…. breathe into these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them: they came to life and stood up on their feet – a vast army.”
–Ezekiel 37:4-6;9-10
We walk so much because we go door to door telling people about life, Jesus. These two verses reminded me of the people living in the valley. They are all in a spiritual drought, just dry bones waiting for some life to wake them. The valley itself is dead because there is no life. After reading the verses I thought how God is using us to bring life to those dry bones and to the valley, He’s using us to create His army of “dry bones”. Every step we take up and down through the valley is another step of life we take for the Kingdom and it just gives me energy despite how tired I am. And just how the valley is both in an actual drought and a spiritual drought, God will provide the water to bring it back to life.
