The Death March.

I live in such a beautiful part of the Middle East! 

I can’t even begin to explain to you how excited I was for this day. Crazy to think I was excited for a death march, but the trip got its name after the experience. 

First, it started a week before the hike, I asked Stacy if we could go hiking somewhere for our day off. She informed me that there was a Swiss man living in the City named Andy who was planning a hike up Mt. Piramagrun, the largest Mountain to climb near our city. I was all aboard and the group coming was going to be a lot of fun. 

Unfortunately, I got sick the day before the hike. This awful flu bug was going around our team, and I got it the day before we were supposed to go hiking, as well as Erin who was supposed to fly out that night. I had a lot of things I wanted to do with her before she left, but instead we spent our last day together in separate rooms sleeping. By the end of the day Thursday I was feeling a lot better. I prayed that I would feel okay to go on the hike. I woke up at 1am on Friday and was feeling a lot better. We took Erin to the airport and then met everyone else at the center by 3am to start the hike. I was so excited and so thankful that I was feeling okay to do this hike!

We got to the mountain around 4am. It was still dark out and we began our hike. I didn’t have a back pack so Mathew, (a boy from LA who lives at our center and works in the city as an engineer) and I shared a bag he had. This ended up working out great, cause the hike was a little harder than we had expected. It was a very big mountain, but past mountains I have hiked has a clear trail which usually involved switch backs. This had neither of that. It did have sharp knife like rocks that slid down when you stepped on them. So Matt took our bag and I carried someone else’s and took some extra weight to make it easy for other hikers. 

Thankfully the people we went with were great sports and had decent attitudes even though in some area's the ground gave away and so often you had to dodge a falling rock. After 4 hours or so of hiking we made it to a more level spot closer to the top. Once at the top I got really sick, but I insisted on making it the rest of the way. Most of the girls stayed behind on the more level spot of the mountain to rest while the rest of us submitted to the top. Andy brought climbing gear and I was super excited to be able to actually climb a little. We spent some time at the peak of the mountain and took a few pictures. On the way back down to our bags, I could feel my stomach not being very happy with me, and I got sick again. 

After that I was done. 

But this is where the story actually gets interesting. 

Michael, Russel and Tyler started down the mountain with me. I just wanted to get to the bottom. On our way down we ran into some other hikers that were hiding on the side of the cliff taking shelter. They kept saying something about being careful with the rocks, “be careful, be careful!” Michael tried to explain to them that we were being as careful as we could to not step on lose rocks, but its so steep sometimes it just happened. We apologized and said we did our best to be careful. I thought the hikers were just waiting for our group to come down to not risk being hit by any rocks. We get a little further down the mountain and meet up with a few hikers that were apart of our group but had left early. They said that one of the hikers from the other group had been hit pretty hard by a rock, but help was on the way. Tyler stayed to help out group down, while Russel, Michael and I kept trekkin to the bottom. 

Then up came the police. Out of the three of us we barely knew any of the language and the police kept trying to talk to us. They would not leave us alone though about which direction to take down, but really...there is only one way and that is down. We could see our destination and there isn’t much chance of getting lost because its just a steep mountain side. We finally just ignored the police and kept hiking down. A couple hours later we finally get down to the bottom. I still don’t feel that great, bust mostly feel sunburnt and dehydrated. I couldn’t keep water or any food down, so I avoided it. Mike, Russel and I got to the bottom and knew the rest of our group was at least 2 or so hours behind us. By now its after 3pm and we thought we would be back in the

city around noon. Mike had a meeting he had to be back at by 5. We called Stacy and made sure she had her keys because I had her back pack and asked if we could go early. I didn’t have my residency card on me which you need to leave and get back into the city, but we risked it and drove home anyways. Thankfully, there was no problems. 

Then, I get a call from Stacy saying that they were closer to the top still with the hikers from the other group and one of them had been hit really hard with a rock. The police were there and insisted that Stacy and the others with them ride in the helicopter back with the injured man, or they would get arrested. Stacy was grateful for this because she had also gotten sick and didn’t want to hike the rest of the way down the mountain. 

I didn’t have my phone or my keys to the house and my roommate wasn’t home. Thankfully Katie and Scott were living at the center, so Katie let me shower and gave me clean clothes and took good care of me. Russel went straight to bed, and Michael went home for his meeting. A couple hours passes and I get a call from Michael ( I had Stacy’s phone) asking if he could fill his team in a little more about where stacy was cause one of his local friends had called him to make sure he was okay. The news that night was showing that 7 Italians were being lifted from the mountain by a helicopter, and Michaels team was getting worried about Stacy. 

Finally I got home around 9pm, and my roommate got a call from a local friend making sure we were okay as well because of what she had seen on the news. It wasn’t till the next day that I heard from Stacy, and they didn’t get home till after 9, and never got to ride on the helicopter. The mountain was to steep to land anywhere, so they threw the injured guy into the helicopter, and everyone else hiked down. 

Matt, one of the guys on the hike had just heard from one of his local friends that he got his helicopter license by paying a little extra money. Maybe its a good thing they didn’t ride back in the helicopter.

Thankfully the man from the other group is fine, and everyone else got home safe and sound. It was a crazy hike but definitely one of the worst/best days of my time here.

I will never forget the death march. 

“A Drink of Hope."

The rest of the week with the Salem team was awesome. It started out great with Katie’s wise words the Sunday that the team arrived, and then went onto being even better. 

Barb and Jen lead our team through some worship, prayer and listening times. We took all day Tuesday to be open to what God might be trying to say to us. I had a lot of fun reading Proverbs and praying over verses that stood out to me. It was like I was actually hanging out with Jesus, which was very refreshing and intimate. 

Throughout the week I was able to go with the team to the Bazar, to members homes for meals and we had the team over to our house for lunch as well. I loved showing them around the place I call home. I helped a little with retreat stuff and was looking forward to a weekend away from the City. When the retreat came, Jen asked me to sing with her and this got me really excited. I love singing and I hadn’t done very  much of it since being in Kstan, and I was going to do it all weekend with her. 

The retreat was held out at the Fountain of Love. A center that is ran by Samaritans Purse. The team that runs the center is very close with our team, so it was a blast being out there for the weekend.During free time we were able to play catch with the football and spend time outside which I don’t get to do in the city, but this kind of play keeps me sane. There were about 30-40 women that came out for the retreat. The weekend was called “A Drink of Hope.”

One of the many things that came up repeatedly from Jen and Barb throughout the week was to not always push aside the things that are on our minds when trying to sit and be still with God. So many times we sit down to spend our “quiet time” with Him, but our minds are swarmed with to do lists or something that is on the forefront of our minds and we can’t seem to push it aside. They encouraged us to address those things before God. Most likely that could be something He wants us to work through that day, and if we keep pushing it aside to focus on him, we aren’t being real with what’s actually going on. It was amazing how much easier my time with God went if I just first wrote out all the things I needed to do that day, and gave it to Him. 

That Saturday morning during the retreat I started my morning with writing down everything going on in my mind and giving it up to God. There was a lot. Then God spoke to me. Exodus 14:!4 “The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still.” I felt so much peace after that time with God and was excited to wait on Him to fight for me, and to see how things would turn out. But also excited for that day that lay ahead, and how He would use worship, and the messages to speak to me. 

That night, Jen spoke on a lot of really good things, but she shared that same verse in Exodus. It was so good to hear again, and confirmed to me that God really wanted me to be still and wait while He fought for me.

There was a lot of other great things Jen and Bard brought for us that weekend, that maybe I will share again, but the main thing that got me fired up was knowing that 

I am God’s beloved, and He will fight all my battles for me. I just need to be still.