An uphill battle

Travel for our trip was progressing smoothly until we got closer to our final destination. After our train ride, we had to wait 1 1/2 hours for our bus. One of the drivers was in the hospital and another was finally secured five minutes before we got there, and a road was temporarily closed by a gov't official. While we were touring some temples in the holy city, the bus was leaking gas. When we were done, the bus wouldn't start. After having people push it and getting it started, it was taken to the mechanic, where it was determined a new alternator was needed. This would take two hours, which would make us miss a check point on the mountain that closes at 8 p.m. Two new vehicles were secured. While we were moving luggage to those vehicles, two team members fell off the sidewalk into a 4 foot drainage canal (with sewage in it). Thankfully the injuries were fairly minor. Even though the drivers had originally been hurrying us, they then had to stop and get gas as soon as we were loaded up. Thankfully we made it through the check point. On the way up the mountain (3 hours on S-curves that actually took 4 1/2 hours this night), one of the vehicles got a punctured tire and we had to stop. One of our team members got extremely sick on the ride and then we encountered an unexpected check point, where the army officer wouldn't let us through. Finally, after our leader had to give more information than he desired to give, we were allowed through. We finally arrived at our hotel at 11 p.m. We were greeted warmly with horns and drums, flower leis, and flower petals thrown in the air. It felt like we were movie stars, not a team from Kentucky! There was a big buffet dinner awaiting us. It really helped all the miles we had travelled melt away!

It felt apparent that Satan does not want to give up this mountain, but we were not going to let the obstacles keep us from our hike the next day. We went forth with our hikes, and the name of Christ was proclaimed throughout the villages.