THE HIKE

We arive at Windy Gap- a Younglife camp in Weaserville, NC....absolutely gorgeous site-pretty much takes your breath away. The Georgia group meets us there and we make our way up to Everest (not that high up, but it is where all of the backpacks and hiking gear is). We are all standing there with our suitcases and we are instructed to take out different numbers of clothes to but in the other backpack...I have to admit, it is pretty funny watching all of these students whining because they can't take everything they brought...

On to the hike....

PREFACE- When I decided to go on the trip, I was told the hike up to Plunge was about 1 1/2 miles....so Im in a pretty good mood:) THEN- I was re-directed to the understanding that it is just about 5 miles up. This is a steep mountain people! 5 miles feels like 25 miles....NUTS!

ok- we start the hike....not so bad at first- oh, and let me say that I have never been hiking or backpacking before- WHOLE NEW EXPERIENCE...about 5 min in I am already sucking wind...haha I got a good laugh at that.
About an hour into the hike I began to think about why in the world I was doing this...I mean, God totally told me to go, so that is enough reason in itself, but man it was rough. I began thinking about my family and missing them already, its funny how you don't see them for a while and you miss them, but its like a "miss" you always have, but when you go away you really "MISS" them. I also began to think about the good ol' Cabrera family. My heart began to hurt thinking about the kids and not seeing them for a week or able to talk to the "rents"...I knew it was going to be hard-it was way harder than I thought- I started to focus on Max...thinking about what he has to go through daily- dealing with Autism and not being able to get his thoughts across as easily as we all wish. Think about the hike that must be....It is funny how a little boy-almost 3 years old can inspire someone who is almost 21 or really any age- to get through this crazy hike I was on. I kept picturing his little chubby cheeks and big brown eyes with that heartbreaking smile running in front of me. He really, honestly kept me going. There were so many times I wanted to stop and take a break-my heart was pounding- legs were cramping- sweat was pouring out of me-but this little boy running ahead of me pushed me to a place of perseverance. I began to look at life and our spiritual journeys...thinking about the fact that there will always be people in front of us- no telling how far in front or how close and ultimately God and knowing they are pulling us up, encouraging us, loving us....and then there are always people behind-once again don't know how close or how far, but they are there....we are never last- those people are pushing us- sometimes encouragement come and sometimes struggle comes (like a tug-o-war) but at last- YOU REACH THE SUMMIT. As you can tell- my mind was racing...I did it- I made the hike, shaking a bit and all- but we did it...as a family!

Here is a quick quote from a book I just started... CRAZY LOVE " There is an epidemic of spiritual amnesia going around, and none of us is immune. No matter how many fascinating details we learn about God's creation, no matter how many pictures we see of His galaxies, and no matter how many sunsets we watch, we still forget. Most of us know that we are supposed to love and fear God; that we are supposed to read our Bibles and pray so that we can get to know Him better; that we are supposed to worship Him with our lives. But actually living it out is challenging. It confuses us when loving God is hard. Shouldn't it be easy to love a God so wonderful? When we love God because we feel we should love Him, instead of genuinely loving out of our true selves, we have forgotten who God really is. Our amnesia is flaring up again."

This past week was a huge expression of God's unfathomable love- it was awesome!

"I can do all things through-who- CHRIST- who gives us-what- STRENGTH!!!!!!!!!"
Phil. 4:13