Jungle hike... I'll never forget these 5 days and all of us who went are still thinking and talking about it. Last weekend, I went on a camping trip with most of the students who live in the two dorms. We were a group of almost 200 people. It was a nice time. We had kind of a "jungle adventure camping site" all for ourselves (including 3 funny parrots - see pic) and the offered programm wasn't mandatory except for worships and church - that means we had a lot of freedom. You could play tarzan or volleyball, play in the river or in the beautifully soft sand, eat chicken or insist on you vegetarian diet... the kids had fun! I had my little tent all for myself this time, so I had a great time, too. I slept a lot, read a lot, listened to sermons, had time to talk with people. Stress was just non-existent. On Friday morning I craweld out of my tent around 10am. No bells. Just happy kids who were screaming at the top of their loungs playing tarzan and flying through through the monkeyfilled trees... =)BUT: I won't be talking about that trip the same way I'm talking about the jungle hike. It was a great time to "recharge your batteries", but it wasn't necessarily a time you will be talking about for months and recalling episodes of it for years.
It's the same with life. Difficult times often make you getting closer to God. You would like to escape the situation, but looking back, you have a lot to tell: how God has helped you in the most difficult moments, how he has opened doors of steel, how you grew with the challenges, how everything worked out for the good... All of us need times to "recharge batteries", but without times that push you beyond your limits, you won't really grow and you won't have a lot to tell.
Alright. With the last two things that kept me walking on the jungle hike, I want to - more or less - finish my jungle experiences. I have more stories and comments about the hike in my photo albums and if you want to know anything else - let me know.
Third: The power of music made me forget the hurting parts of my body. I was surprised, but music really works. On Friday, I didn't feel like walking any further from about lunchtime. My feet were aching, my shoulders weren't any better and the path turned more and more into a mud trail for one. Because the group I had been walking with in the morning was just too big, I changed after lunch and stayed with my chaplain Wilson and all the crazy Brazilian theology students. After every hour of walking, we stopped for a 5 min prayer break. As crazy as the Brazilians are - they kept singing/shouting all the time and we sang/shouted one song after the other. When Wilson anounced it was time for a prayer break, I couldn't believe that a whole hour was over... without even thinking about my shoulders nor feet!! On Sunday, I sometimes used my MP3-player to just keep walking with the rythm. In the afternoon, when my feet were screaming for dry socks and shoes, I was singing songs with Rafael. One after the other. We stopped singing for a while to mourn about our sore feet and shoulders, but soon realized that it wasn't a great idea to pitty ourselves. So we went back to singing - Portuguese, Spanish, English - everything we knew, and made it to the "camping site" for the night in pretty high spirits.
If you never tried to sing when you are down, hurting or pittying yourself - give it a try! It might change your day and your whole perception of the things around you!
Last but not least: The aim prevented me from giving up. I don't know what the ohters were thinking about, but all of us had something we were looking for, something that motivated us to go on. For a lot of them, it was food. They hadn't been very creative with their menu and after 3 days, I can understand that you don't want to see any more peanuts with granola. You should have heard them scream when we encountered 4 cows on Monday around lunch time! Well, the cows didn't have to fear me =) I was looking forward to a pair of dry socks, a hot shower and my bed with my warmer sleeping bag.
Do you have something you're living for? Is it something that is WORTH living for? Without a vision, without an aim, it's pretty hard to face the tougher times in you life!
The hike didn't transform me into an angel or an all-knowing sage, but I had a lot of time to think and pray during these 5 days and I don't want to trade this experience for anything. And I don't want to trade my new Brazilian/Mexican friends for anything either!
Happy Sabbath!
maria
PS: If you're reading this blog today - I could need some prayers for tomorrow since I'll have the sermon in the church my Mexican friend Arturo is leading/pastoring. It's also the closest church for my (Catholic) friend and classmate Wendy, who went with me on the hike. We invited her and she said she would come! She's thinking about baptism but has some stuggles. She can use some prayers, too! Thank you!
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