Saturday, February 15, 2014

The experience on Pike's Peak

I'll always remember the experience I had at the top of Pike's Peak!

While training to become missionaries in Colorado, a friend and I took the last cog of the day to the top of the mountain.  It took less than an hour and a half to go the 9 miles to the top.  We were able to sit, enjoyed the scenery, and took pictures.  As the cog got closer to the top, we had to put on our coats.  As we arrived they told us we the cog would leave in 30 minutes.  There wasn’t another cog until morning and it was a very long way down.  The air was thin and it was hard to breath, but we walked around, played in the snow, and enjoyed the view.  Then we went inside the Summit House, and there found two friends from the training center.

Our friends had had a goal to hike to the top, but it was a much longer journey than they thought it would be.  They had left the training center the afternoon before to start on their trek up the mountain.  That part was relatively easy and they made it halfway to a base camp as they had planned.  The next morning they set out expecting to be able to reach the top, enjoy the view and hike back down to the base camp by evening.

So to see them right before 6 PM at the top of the mountain exhausted, out of breath, repeating the phrase – ‘that was the hardest thing we’ve ever done’, but still feeling blessed by the experience was a sight that is still crystal clear in my memory.  Their climb was breathtaking, figuratively as well as literally.  They took pictures, but started having trouble breathing in the thin air.  When they ran out of water and still had quite a ways to go the hike became scary for them.  But, they kept climbing, little by little, rock by rock, boulder by boulder.  They made it just at the right time!  If it had taken them any longer they would have not had a shelter at the top or a cog ride back down to the halfway camp.  They trusted God and persevered!

They are now in language studies on the mission field.  May they persevere with this journey as well.

My journey to Italy has been a lot like their trip up the mountain.  I had a plan and set out on the journey.  At first it was challenging, but still kind of easy.  When I finished the fundraising for the start up I was so excited and knew I’d be ‘up the mountain’ of fundraising the monthly support I needed and be on the field soon.  There have been a lot of challenges along the way.  The view has been breathtaking.  I know I’m nearing the top of the ‘mountain’.  It is getting hard to breath, the ‘water’ supply I had is gone, but I see the goal and I will reach the summit just in time, in God’s time.  I know with God all things are possible!