Backtracking a few weeks to St Cuthbert's way our five day 100 km trek from Melrose, Scotland to Holy Island in Lindisfarne, England. Starting out I was pretty pumped. I was excited to be able to be outside, enjoy God's creation, have long talks with people and spend some good alone time with just me and God. All of that sounded great in theory but wasn't exactly how it went. When ever you have that much time by yourself I have found is not all that great. And for me it was only magnified when I came down a bad case of the flu the night preceding the third day. I will be honest, I was miserable having to continue trekking and climbing hills/mountains when I hardly had energy to even stand. One of the guys carried my pack, along with his. One of the girls linked arms with me to help me walk, more like help me stand, and was by myside for most of the day. This was a hard lesson in humility for me! The remainder of the trek was still a struggle since I was still quite weak and had many different emotions running through my mind, ones I never knew even existed. The last day when crossing the sand flats to our destination on Holy Island, exhaustion took over and I felt no emotion as to what we had just accomplished. Looking back, I don't think I put that week in the category of a good time, it was actually quite difficult, but God got me through, more like He carried me because, there are points during the trek that I blacked out and don't even remember, and how I got to the final destination while being so sick, is beyond me.
So now the stories continues to where we are going for outreach. We figured out just a few days ago that we will be going to the country of Rwanda in Africa. I'm trying to maintain a sense of reality, knowing that I have no idea what the people of Rwanda have had to live through. Never in my life have I seen the sights they have seen nor heard the cries they have heard. Nor have I ever had to live in the extreme poverty they have had to live in. This is not by any means going to be easy, probably one of the most difficult times I have experienced in my life. Please be in prayer for our team as we prepare for Rwanda and as live there for seven weeks. Also be in prayer for the people of Rwanda, they have had to suffer much through war, genocide and AIDS.
Today we will be on our way out in just a couple hours. We are heading up North to spend nine days on the Islands of Lewis and Iona. Iona is the birthplace of Christianity here in the U.K. While on Iona we will be doing some trekking across the island, and while on Lewis we will be involved in some church services next Sunday. I'm looking forward to a few days of relaxing since we are all feeling a bit tired right now. One thing I'm excited about is that on our way back we will be stopping in Loch Ness..... I've always wanted to see that place so it will be quite fun I'm sure, I'll let you know if I see any strange sightings...... :)
posted by Tonya @ 2:59 AM
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