Honduras Mission - Day 3

This is it! This is the BIG day! The day that I have been training for and looking forward to for the past several months. The day that we take the five hour hike into the mountains. What will the terrain be like? What kind of physical, mental and spiritual challenges lie ahead? Will I be able to make it without my ankle going out on me? These are all of the questions that were rambling through my head. And I am sure God knew the answers to all of them.
The drive itself took about three hours to get to the base of the mountain. Mostly because we had to stop for some supplies and because we got a flat tire half of the way there. While we were waiting for Donny and Bob to get the tire taken care of, some locals approached us to say "Hi". First a little boy ran up to us, followed by his mommy, and then an older man came to us. The older man started talking but only a couple of us could understand his language. He told us that this was all of his farmland and that he was 97 years old. He showed us some of his produce, mostly potatoes and corn, and then mentioned that he was 97 again. The flat was fixed and we were on our way. I am still trying to process or figure out why we got our flat where we did. I may not get that answer for a while.
We arrived at our starting point at about 12:30, had a quick lunch and we were on our way. The first mile of the hike was along the road which was all uphill and a good way to get warmed up. I felt a little winded, only because I forgot to bring my asthma inhaler with me on this trip, but otherwise quite strong. We broke off onto the trails through the woods and I began to wonder what God had in store for me next. My prayer was "Show me what You want to show me and give me strength". We were a little over a mile into the trails and I realized that I was ahead of everyone else. I was trying to keep up with our trail guide Carlos, who was very quick on his feet and knew the trail like the back of his hand. Everything was so lush and green and quiet. Absolutely QUIET. I have never been in a jungle like this except for when I lived in Albuquerque and used to hike in the mountains that surrounded the city. Even then, there was the sound of airplanes flying over.
Carlos and I would wait for the others to catch up and then take off again only to get another twenty or more minutes ahead of the pack. We reached the place that they call "Jurassic Park" which I imagine was named this because it looks like a scene from the movie. It is about a mile long descend straight down the side of the mountain. Huge rocks and trees were towering out of the mud. Leaves, loose rock and downed tree limbs served as obstacles and were extremely challenging. None the less, I found myself bolting down the water drainage paths trying to keep up with Carlos again, and then it hit me. I heard a voice ask me if I knew how unique this opportunity was. I was walking on a primitive trail with one of the locals, communicating with hardly any knowledge of the Spanish language, in the middle of a jungle a thousand miles from home. How many Americans can say they did that? Thank You God for that wonderful experience.
The rest of the group caught up again and we pressed on. It was close to 5:00 and getting dark fast with about two miles to go. The rest of the trail was downhill with a lot of loose rock and gravel. I was getting pretty tired and the bottoms of my feet were beginning to hurt. At this point, I just wanted the hike to be over with. The darkness began to challenge all of us and I was growing impatient with our pace. I started getting careless and before I knew it, I was going down. I slipped on some loose rock while trying to avoid someones walking stick in front of me. I braced myself with my arms and landed hard on my ass. I immediately felt my arm hurting and thought to myself, "at least I didn't sprain my ankle". I was wrong. It only took about 100 yards to realize my ankle was going out on me. Most of the pack was ahead of me now and only Bob, Tom and Darrell were behind me. I collapsed again and began to weep with frustration. Tom immediately laid hands on my ankle and began to pray for me. After a short prayer, Bob picked me up and the three of them pushed, carried and encouraged me the rest of the way to our destination. Those are my brothers and I love them very much. I realized that I could not have done that without them. I felt prideful and dumb. I was thankful and appreciative.
It was about 6:30 or 7:00 by the time I got to the shelter where we were going to be staying. The hike took about five and a half hours. I will never forget those hours we spent on the trail. Ryan prepared dinner for the twelve of us, Carlos prayed for my ankle in Spanish, I wrapped my ankle and went to sleep. What an awesome day!
You'll notice there were no pictures for this blog. That is because I was too busy trying to keep up with Carlos.