mountain sickness

we start our adventure on twisty roads, on this crazy bus. the view was absolutely fantastic the whole way up to the tiny town we would be staying at. shout out to gary.. this is your town gary. this is you. i kept thinking that the whole time i was going up and once i got there. anyways..
we ate rice balls for breakfast and then started our trek. we did 7 km up the mountain and 5 km down. now let me start with my story.
this trek was pretty awesome for the first 6km up. i felt good, felt the burn... was basically living the dream. all a sudden i felt very weak, like my body was on fire and like i was going to faint. and seriously faint, not just saying.. hey i think i might faint. so we stopped for water and some berries. basically i didnt want to move. i didnt watn to go on. i didnt really have much of a chioce, but them leaving me there to rot and die just sounded like a party. i have never felt this way before. i felt like a failure. i felt like i was going to keel over. i wanted to barf but couldnt. there was a little voice inside of me"you can do it" but i didnt want to. i didnt want to listen to it... and that is where my dear jody came in. she pulled my arm and said, just 1 more km cass. we can rest up there. she had to pull me a bit. i wish i didnt have to admit that. i wish i could say it was easy for me. but that km wasnt. i had been sick in the morning and tried to push through it. we got to the plateau before the top and we napped there for about ten minutes. i prayed, i just needed to get to teh top. getting down would be easy. i just needed to get to the top. when we did, i felt great. i wasnt miss happy, but i did it! i did it with help, but we did it. (can i throw up yet?)
the whole time i was thinking about how this situation was like church. (and i am nto jut talking teh building here)
when i left the church it was really easy for a long while. i would hit bumps and get scratches but it didn't really much matter. i was strong enough. i wouldn;t even really to for water, and if i did it was a small sip, just to satisfy me. then the sun really comes out, starts to burn my skin and my soul. it's hard to keep going, but you lotion up to prevent further redness. there are times when you dont want to go on. and if i was bymyself on that trek i probably would have just fallen asleep for hours and no one would have known where i was. but i had friends, people to encourage me. sometimes even drag me. In the church, in community it is abotu working together as one. most of the time i feel like i am encouraging and don't get encouraged that often. this has been one thing i have been really pondering on my trip. i need to be surrounded by Godly people, but still reach into the world. i need to be part of something bigger than my personal faith, i need to be part of the body of Christ. The trek down was easy because i had people with me. i had someone guiding me. i would have never made it down if i was alone. my guide will be compared to Jesus. he waited for me when i was tired, pushed me to keep going when i didnt really want to sometimes. but his eyes were so gentle, so caring, feeding me berries.. giving me nutrients.
jesus is my nutrient. he is my strength and i need to give that back to him. how i will when i am home will be only known then. but the thoughts are there, the desire is there.

the next day i slept all day and didnt trek. i was feeling quite ill. my stomach is feeling blah, but iwill live, i think it is just travellers sickness. i finished readign blue like jazz which i think is an amazing book adn everyone should read it. heading to the beaches tomorrow, and for the next three days. keep praying. and keep posting. xo