Yesterday (I wrote this on October 21, 2011) I went on the biggest adventure of my life thus far (You know…except for the whole moving to Guatemala for 3.5 months thing…). We were in Antigua, Guatemala for our mid-trip debrief and so a few of the girls and I decided to go on a hiking tour of the Pacaya Volcano. I almost didn’t go, but I knew I would regret it if I didn’t. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
We arrived at the start of the tour and there are a ton of boys around the age of 10 all trying to get us to rent their walking sticks. They were relentless, as were the men trying to rent horses to ride up and down the volcano. I refused both options and started the hike up the hill. I didn’t make it very far before my asthma kicked in and my lungs began to burn. I didn’t want to give in and get a horse, but one of my teammates haggled with them and got the price of the horses down to a quarter of the price so 4 of us ended up riding horses up and down the volcano (which was really cool because I’ve never ridden a horse before!)
We made it to the top of the volcano and it was the coolest thing I have ever seen in my entire life. It was so cold and really foggy (I’m pretty sure we were in the middle of a cloud), but every once in a while the sun would peak through the cloud and all we could do was marvel at God’s beauty. While up there we got to crawl through this little cave that was SO warm inside and then we got to roast marshmallows on the volcano!
Well, this is when our adventure took an interesting turn. We realized that the sun was setting while we were at the top and we knew it wasn’t long before we wouldn’t have any light at all to get back down the volcano. We kept trying to tell our tour guide that we needed to go and that it was getting dark, but all he kept saying was that the horses have better eyesight than we do (that wasn’t very comforting to me let alone the people who didn’t have horses).
By the time we made it back to where our horses were, it was pitch dark. We were at the mercy of our guides and horses. I could barely make out the silhouette of the man guiding my horse and so I definitely couldn’t see the rest of the group.
As I clutched the saddle with all of my might as we descended the steep volcano, all I could do was pray: “Dear Jesus, keep us safe. Give us steady feet. Give our horses steady hooves. Make the horses and the guides see as if it were daylight.” I was so scared I almost began to cry but I continued to lean on my Jesus for comfort, security, and safety.
Crazy enough, God showed me that even though I can’t see ahead of me, He can. Although I was really scared, I knew that He was going to take care of us. I’m going to make more of an effort to rely on the fact that even though I can’t see my next step in life, Jesus can and will guide my feet.
Obviously, we made it down safe and sound and even though it was the scariest day of my life, I got to experience something not everyone gets to. Not only that, but I did so with some awesome Godly women and I got to experience a reliance on God that I never have before.
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