Adventures With Jesus Worldwide: January 2014

The Holiday Season is often one more beset with pain, anxiousness, and stress than most of us would want to admit. Maybe we are without a family member or a friend for the first time due to a death or someone moving on. It might bring up painful memories or maybe we are just too darn busy to sit back and actually enjoy what the season should actually be focusing on; Love. Love divine came down as a humble baby born in cave/stable/trough or any other way you would like to interpret manger. Love that calls us to himself and calls us to love one another. This has never been more apparent to me than during this holiday season. This was my first Christmas and New Year away from home and being out of the culture of Christmas in America allowed me to see through the fog of materialism and greed. Christmas is about Love. Shoot, our whole existence is about Love. God says he is love (1 John 4:8) so if we’re not focused on Him how can we be loving others? I can’t wake up in the morning and say “Hey, world, I’m gonna have more love today.” I can’t have more of something I don’t have on my own. I can do my best to be more loving but that’s like trying to sing without focusing on your breathing. It just comes out wrong. True, real, self-giving love comes only from God. He is the source. I’m making it my mission this year to plug into that source than ever. What an incredible privilege it is to be able to come before the God of the universe because of the birth, death, and victorious resurrection of Jesus! Prayer and worship are where it’s at and I invite you to join me. It promises to be quite the adventure. Speaking of adventure…

A few weeks ago some of us also had the opportunity to head out to the east of the country and get a little day safari at Akagera National Park. After my many adventures in the bush in Zimbabwe with Lasting Impressions I wasn’t expecting much, and I was right, but man, the bush gets my blood flowing. Being out there in the wild where anything can happen and seeing animals in their natural habitats is just the best freaking thing. The first hour or two we only saw baboons and some monkeys, which made my trigger finger a little itchy I gotta admit. Most people think monkeys and baboons are cute and cuddly but they’re anything but. Little monsters. On Christmas day we had some monkeys come into our friends back yard and we got to feed them bananas but I’m sure you can imagine they’ll be tough to get rid of from now on.

After we got out of the thick brush and into a little more open space we got to see some elephant from about a mile off, a good deal of them too, maybe 50 individuals. There really wasn’t much to see out of the ordinary with lots of warthog, hippo, impala, waterbuck, zebra, some crocs, and topi. The real treat for me was finally seeing my first giraffe in the wild. If you need proof God exists please just look at a giraffe. It’s one thing to see them in a zoo and think “wow, what a gorgeous creature.” It’s something else to see upwards of 6 of them at a time in one place and think “how the heck does this thing even exist?!?!” They’re 18 feet tall, have tongues long enough to lick their own eyeballs, and their calves drop 8 feet to the ground when they’re born. Just mind blowing. Getting to enjoy these creatures in the wild, and getting to see them run, along with 7-8 young ones, was a real treat.

The other treat was getting to see some Cape Eland, albeit from a long way off. Check them out. They’re gorgeous. Why anyone would ever want to shoot them with anything other than a camera I’ll never know. We ended the day driving through the plain and getting to also see some Cape Buffalo and then had our long drive home. While I did enjoy the trip it just hammered home how awesome and privileged I was to be able to do the things I did in Zimbabwe. Rwanda is so…tame. But here’s a story that isn’t…

This last week Torey’s family came out to visit for Christmas and New Year and we had the opportunity to go and climb Mt. Bisoke, one of the volcano peaks in the west of the country near Musanze. On our drive out there I started feeling sick to my stomach and had a tough time with dinner that night and sleeping. I was running a low fever and decided I would see if I was up to climbing the mountain in the morning. Now, when I say mountain, I mean this is a 12,000 ft peak in the African jungle. It is the natural habitat of the mountain gorilla. This thing was nothing to sneeze at. When I woke up in the morning I convinced myself I was feeling well enough to climb the mountain, or at the very least give it my best shot.

When we got to the office for entrance to park my bowels let me know in no small way that they were very unhappy and I proceeded to use the toilet about 4 times in the next hour. Ah…Africa. I paid my money and we started the journey to the mountain which has the highest crater lake in the world. I was really excited to see it. As we started our ascent I decided to be at the front of our group to make sure I could set the pace and see where I was going since the trail was littered with stinging nettles and I was wearing my Chacos and shorts. Not the best idea I’ve ever had, but they kept me cool. After climbing for about 2 hours my bowels once again let me know how unhappy they were and I prompted our guide to let me find a place in the woods to do my business. Let me tell you something; digging a hole in the jungle is an experience in itself. I climbed up through some bush and nettles behind a porter and he dug me a spot. It was a special time. By the time I finished I was behind most of the group and after climbing another hundred feet I was done. My fever had kicked in full gear, I was drenched in sweat, everything hurt, and my legs were shaking going UP the mountain. That usually only happens when I’m on my way down. A few people on the hike had climbed Kilimanjaro and said that other than the summit day that this climb up Bisoke was way more intense. I hate giving up. I hate losing. But at this point, I had no other choice but to turn around. Even if I could have made it to the top I doubt I would have had any energy left to make it back down. My friends Jon and Torey both looked at me and said “Ryan, you look like hell”. That was the straw that broke this camel’s back. I got the keys to the car from Jon and our guide assigned one of our armed guards and a porter to escort me down.

As I started the descent I realized just how gassed I actually was because by this point every step was agony. I had no strength left. My knees were nearly buckling with every step and I slipped and almost fell more times than I care to count, not counting the times I did actually fall. My porter, who also had my bag, had to hold my hand most of the way down. Did I mention it rained most of the way down? Yeah, it rained most of the way down and I, in my infinite wisdom, didn’t bring my rain shell. In addition to being wet and weak, the trail was now a mudslide. It was one of the most physically miserable days of my life. Not only could I not conquer and reach the top, which was enough torture in itself, I was cold, wet, sick, and had to have another man hold my hand most of the way down the mountain just so I didn’t eat it too hard. Despite all that, I chose to take what positives I could. I now had the opportunity that no one else in the group had: I got to experience the mountain virtually on my own and enjoy its beauty in relative silence other than my two Rwandan friends helping me down the mountain. I also saw the only wildlife of the whole hike; one lonely, gorgeous, chameleon.

By the time I finally made it down the mountain it had taken me longer to get down than it did to get up. I laid in the car, ate some snacks, and bundled up. The rest of the group only returned an hour or so later which means they made it all the way up and back down in only an hour longer than it took me to get half way up and back down. I guess I really was that sick. It was an adventure to say the least, and not the kind I would care to repeat, but getting humbled isn’t always the worst thing that can happen to you. I felt much better the next day but the stomach bug has lingered and I finally got to see the doctor this week.

The real adventure though has been this week. At church we have had church wide fasting and prayer for the week praying for the year and seeking God. Without my friend Jack in our house yet I have had the whole house to myself to pray, song as loud and late as I want, and just spend time with God in the quiet. I forgot how much I have longed for that for over a year. Loneliness is not something I have sought enough in my life being a total extrovert, but apparently I need it much more than I thought. More time alone in this new year is a must. It’s like the difference between always going into a fight on minimal rest and over training and having good rest, stretching, and massage. It makes all the difference when you can come at life from a place of centeredness and strength (i.e. the Source, Jesus). I look forward to a year more grounded in prayer and centeredness in Jesus than ever before. It promises to be a heck of a ride.

’Til next time…