globalmissionmc.org - blog

Hi Mom!

     Made it back safe and mostly sound.  My knees got pretty abused hiking uphill contantly without my hiking boots.  I did it in rubber boots.  They hurt so bad that I was taking 800 mg Ibuprofen in the am and in the pm for 3 days.  I will get more details to you later.  I learned alot about myself, my leadership qualities and abilities, and recognized 2 more strongholds that are interfering with my intimacy with God and being effective for the Kingdom of God.  Thanks so much for all the prayers.  There were 2 specific times while hiking uphill in excrutiating pain in my knees that I wanted to give up, but I kept going. 
   It sure would’ve helped to have had my hiking boots for better support.  I think that would’ve made all the difference in the world for me and my knees.  I wish I would’ve listened to that voice inside that was telling me to pack them back in Boise.   We did kill our dinner, a chicken, the first night.  I swung from trees the day of the 7K hike, mostly because of all the mud.  The first night we actually hiked down to the river bank and set up camp there…girls in one tent, guys in the other.  I fell twice on the way.  The second fall occurred at the top of a steep decline going down the side of the river bank.  It would’ve have sent me about 12 feet down into some water had I not stopped right at the edge.  It was awkward hiking and packing all my stuff.  Then you add the element of darkness.  Every time they would come and say you have so many minutes to do whatever.  If we were late and unprepared for anything, we had to do 10 pushups for every minute late and for every item we didn’t have with us.  We began being paranoid that I found myself waking up at 5:30 am and getting myself ready for the day.  They seemed to come about 6 am to wake us and say we had 10 minutes to get our stuff together, break camp and get somewhere.  Oy!!  Very stressful.  I praise God that overall I was healthy throughout NIKO.  I will say sleeping on the sand of the riverbank the first night was actually uncomfortable.  I was very grateful for the wood floors the second and third night.  It was the second night, when we were sleeping on the wood floor, that I realized that I had it pretty good compared to millions of people in the world who were sleeping on dirt floors or on the streets or were in prisons or hospitals.  I was healthy, I was breathing crisp, fresh air and I had a clean floor to sleep on.  We take so much for granted.  Though we know that inherently, we don’t really realize it until it’s truly been taken from you.  Our teacher, Kenneth, said that “It is only when those things that we view as needs are taken away that our true selves are revealed.”  We begin to see what we are made of and who we really are.  He taught about Surrender and Teamwork.  The first day we did activities for almost 3 hours that showed him and the other leaders how we worked together in our various groupings.  We were divided into 3 teams of 5 people.  We had to get through vertical rope mazes, cross 4 inch beams while our team was on it without any of us falling off, as well as other activities.  It showed our strength and weaknesses in communication and our willingness to offer ideas in problem solving and working together.  I found in myself that I have a difficult time determining when to push my ideas and when to back down.  I second guess myself waaaay too much, lacking confidence in my ideas sometimes which keeps me silent with an idea that would very well have been the best idea overall in a given situation.  I learned the day that I led the first half of the 7K hike that as leaders we have stronger leadership ability in certain areas, that we can’t expect to be a great leader in all situations.  We lead even when we don’t have the title of leadership by how we conduct our lives and make our choices.  At the beginning of the day, we as a team appointed a leader (the 2nd and 3rd day we had 2 leaders).  At the end of the day, we as a team critiqued their leadership, what they did well and where they could do better.  I think we all appreciated that time.  It helped to get other’s perspective as mine could be very narrow or warped about my own abilities sometimes.  I used scripture to motivate both myself and my team.  That helped alot too.  Another thing I learned was that I don’t need to compare myself to others as long as I know I was giving 100% with the right motive of doing it as unto God with the talents and/or abilities He’s given me.  I will not lead in the same way someone else will.  I have different giftings and talents than they have.  Some of this I know, but I realize God is bringing all this up this last week to bring to my attention that I have very powerful stronghold that is exalting itself against knowing God more intimately.  I hadn’t recognized it as a stronghold before.  The longer we live the more likely it is that we have more strongholds (beliefs, attitudes) that are not bibilical that are interfering with our intimacy with Christ.  I will continue to ask Him to reveal those to me as we go along. 

     Myself and 2 others were picked at the end by the leaders and pulled aside for a time of encouragement.  We were offered Mango juice and ice cream!  I had vanilla swirled with chocolate fudge.  Sooooo delicious!  One leader spoke into my life by saying how impressed he was that I used scripture to motivate, that when I got through the most difficult part of the hike I was able to regroup and keep going and finish strong.  He reminded me that we all lead in different ways and have leadership giftings in certain areas and not to be hard on myself.