7th Romanian Summary – The Truth about the High Wall

Tuesday, July 12th

The first whole day of camp!

Breakfast:  Goat cheese with meat . . . salami or pepperoni.  By my picky choice, I left hungry.
We met for the first time in our small groups for Bible study.  Our group was made up of the older orphan girls led by Romanian Tabita.  She has a strong mentor relationship with these girls which made the group time a joy.  In America, my natural bond is not with teens outside of my own, therefore, it was interesting to see what God had in mind.  I thought for sure He would have nestled me in with the little ones telling Bible stories with play dough.  Oh how HE DOES PREPARE, and He began a work in me for this very group of young teenagers weeks before we even left America.

Craft time was a great success.  We made back packs out of duct tape, kites, and picture frames.  The bags were a unique idea and the kids loved them. 

Recreation time – the kids did the same team building activities that we did with our teams the day before.  The orphans enjoyed this activity as much as we did.  We were slowly bonding which was a beautiful thing.

Back to . . . The High Rock Wall – need I say more?  Oh yes, I do!  After watching many climb the wall, I was encouraged to do the same.  I really didn’t want to conquer this, but gave into the promptings around me.  After a few rungs on the wall, I was ready to give up.  I definitely didn’t have the proper shoes or the skills to scale a forty foot rock wall!  BUT, just as I was crying out a plea of surrender – the safety monitor became my new best friend J  He hoisted me up to each new plateau as if I were exerting my own talents.  (See – I needed to share my secrets just in case you were wondering). 
Was it easy?  Absolutely not, but it was a challenge in which I had victory because of the cloud of witnesses surrounding me!  And I was looking down at them almost through the clouds!     The cheering crowd along with the one holding the ropes gave me the boost needed to make it to the top. 

 

Oh how we can make spiritual application here!  Do not underestimate the power of a word of encouragement and one walking by your side.  WOW ~ the cheers and support (literal) made all the difference in my success that morning.  YOU DO COUNT and are necessary in Christ’s body.  God may call you to be the one to walk alongside a weak friend, or whisper, “You can do it” in their spiritual ears.

  

It would be great if victory at the top of the wall were the end of the story; however, what goes up must come down and coming down was a different story!  I was to fall back from 40 feet and just sail down to the bottom! 

I was shaking…

                                                            I was sweating…

                                                                                                I was scared!

It took a few minutes to build my faith and trust in the jumping off process which again was the only way to come back down!  Finally, I took the literal leap of faith and within seconds was back on solid ground.  God later used this experience in the Romanian tapestry.  I love how God weaves just what we need into our lives ~ even simple or not so simple life challenges as a morning on the rock wall.