Angelina's Life in Motion

Hola todo el mundo!! Here I am again, ready to tell you about my most recent adventures and thoughts. The days are flying by and it's hard to believe that in 5 weeks and 3 days, I'll be flying home for Christmas! I can't wait to see you all and talk with you! That's definitely something I'm looking forward to! Well, I said I'd let you know about my weekend, so here it goes...... We left PCS around 12:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon. We arrived at the campsite around 5:00. During the trip we climbed a total of about 3,000 ft in altitude, going from 7,000 to 10,000 ft above sea level. Well, guess what? There are clouds at 10,000 ft. So, Friday night the clouds were covering our campsite and it was so thick that we could barely see 25 ft away. Someone told me that right across the street was a cliff that we'd be climbing the next day, however I didn't see it until the next morning when the clouds were gone. It was a beautiful sight! Well, anyways, Friday night we unpacked, set up tents, had a worship service around the campfire, ate dinner and then played some games. We played Capture the Flag in the dark! It was a lot of fun. I haven't played that in years. Debbie Hudson was on my team and she captured the other team's flag, so we won the game. After that, we played Mafia. This is a mind/strategy game that we'd play a lot after Bible study in Chi-Alpha at LBT. So, we had almost 20 people playing and it was fun, especially because two of my friends, Hiram and Leandro, from my church here went along to help with the climbing and they had never played before. Neither had some of the junior high students. So, we had a good time. Friday night, I slept in a tent for about the second time in my life. I've only been camping once before. I was miserable...it was very cold there and it rained nearly the whole weekend. The next morning when people asked how I slept, I'd say...."Well, I'll put it this way, a little sleep is better than no sleep." But, God was good and I was able to enjoy the day and have enough strength to do all the activities. After breakfast, we walked across the street to the mountains and began our climb to the top. Now, this wasn't an extremely high mountain peak, it was along the edge of the Sierra Madre Oriental mountain range. However, we did climb up approximately 1,000 ft to a place called, "the eye." It's a little hole in the side of the mountain that looks like an eye if you are far away from the mountain. When we got about 15 ft. below the eye, we had to use a rope to climb up the side of the mountain and through the eye. Once through it, we could walk around on the top of the mountain. It was gorgeous. Everywhere I looked were green trees and mountains. It was neat to think about the Biblical references about mountains, like in Psalm 114 where it says that the mountains skipped like rams in the presence of God and the earth trembled! I also thought about how Moses climbed up to the top of mountain and God hid him in the cleft of the rock so His glory would not kill him. It's one thing to read about someone meeting God on a mountaintop and another thing to experience being on a mountaintop. To think how humbled Moses must have been to look around and see God's magnificent creation after a long, tiring and probably dangerous journey up the mountain. I know what's it's like to climb a mountain now. Then after Moses experienced God's glory, to climb back down the mountain and find such a contrasting atmosphere, where the people were worshipping idols. I can't imagine how much that must have broken Moses' heart. Well, anyways, these are thoughts I had as I spent time on the mountaintop. My friend also reminded me about how Jesus took some disciples to the mountaintop to be transfigured before them. I know God is going to use my experience climbing and being on that mountain to give me a better understanding of Him and His word. Well, as we were climbing back down, the clouds got really thick and all we could see was white! It was pretty cool, I'll have to admit! After I got back down to the 10,000 ft. level, I went to a climbing route that was set up and climbed up the side of the mountain. There is a metal hook at a certain point up on the side of the mountain and a rope is run through it and down to the ground. So, I'm attached to a rope that goes through the hook at the top and back down to a person at the bottom of the mountain. That person is also hooked up to the rope, so it's very safe to climb. Anyways, it's such a challenging sport. It takes thinking to look for rocks sticking out to stand on and hold onto, and also flexibility and strength to pull yourself up. The route I climbed was about 75 ft. long and I completed it! It was such a neat feeling to make it! I really enjoy rock climbing. Anybody know any good climbing places around Lima??? (That was a joke!) I'm going to miss the scenery here when I go home. Well, climbing the mountain to the eye and then the climbing route took most of the morning and afternoon. In the evening, we ate dinner, had another bible service and again played Mafia. Saturday night I slept much better!!! Sunday, we packed up, had a worship service and left the campsite around 12:00p.m. We stopped for lunch at McDonalds and then got back to the school around 5:00p.m. From there, Debbie Hudson and I cleaned up and went to a party at our church. It was a celebration party for anyone who had a big event happen during this year, so I got a certificate for graduating. :) The weekend was definitely exhausting, but was an incredible experience. God has been teaching me about Himself in so many different ways. I challenge you this week to look for Him in a new way. You will be blessed! Thanks for reading and letting me share my thoughts with you all! Angelina