I love it when God gives me exactly what I need, exactly when I need it in a very tangible way. Let me explain.
This month has been one of the most stressful months our family has ever experienced. I remember looking at the calendar one day at the beginning of the month, and at the length of our to do list thinking, "There is no way we can accomplish this." The list included: school, sorting and packing through all our possesions, writing a 10 page paper, preparing and delivering a sermon/devotional in chapel, coaching soccer, loading a shipping container, saying goodbye to friends, etc.
The next day Mike got sick. Sick, like stuck-in-bed-with-a-fever-for-days-sick. I was now left alone to try and balance everything.
Every morning my prayer was for enough energy to make it through the day, and I know we had a lot of people praying for us back home. We survived and by the grace of God finished everything on our to do list.
Needless to say, by the end I was drained. When I need to be recharged, the best method for me is to go for a hike and get out into nature. Now this is the part of the story that gets good. One day as I was waiting to pick up Colton a lady from the International School walked by and invited me on a hike! She said she felt God prompting her to invite me even though we hadn't really met, or gotten to know each other yet. I love how God used somebody else to reach out to me and give me exactly what I needed!
Of course I have to post some pictures. A group of us girls hiked Gunung (Mt.) Andong together. It was beautiful!
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| We parked by a large mosque in a small village that served as "base camp". It was really crowded because the day we hiked was a "red letter day", which means it was a holiday and most people had the day off. |
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| I wanted a picture before I got too sweaty from hiking. |
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| A view of Gunung (Mt.) Merbabu, and Gunung (Mt.) Merapi (which is still active and is spitting out smoke in this picture). |
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| The official puncak (peak). |
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| On the island of Java you can find a warung (store) no matter where you are, selling pop mie and 3 in 1 coffee, even on the top of a mountain! |
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| I don't know these guys, they just wanted to pose for a picture with me. The best part of this picture is the girl on the left, look at how many clothes she has on! It's like she was outfitted to climb Mt. Everest! |
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| We were assured by another hiker that we could cross the ridge on top and hike down the other side of the mountain. We trusted him and hoped we wouldn't end up in the middle of some random farmer's field (we did), but we made it back to our car without any problems. |
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| Pine trees! |
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| This is the biggest bamboo I have ever seen! |
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| Walking through farmland on the way back to base camp. |
