Prayer Letters
September 1, 2003
Dear Friends and Family,
Chirripo is a 12,101-foot mountain in southern Costa Rica; it is also the highest peak in that country. Hiking Chirripo has been a goal of mine for about 4 years, and just last week I accomplished that goal! It was a blast – reaching the top, looking out over the mountain range, watching the sun come up, sweating a ton and being with good friends. And yet for me coming back down was the most painful part. My knees ached so badly, and yet I knew I had to keep going – one step at a time.
My time on the mountain gave me a lot to reflect on especially in thinking of our lives in comparison. As we head up the mountain, we have a goal to reach, and once we are there the excitement sets in that we have arrived and are at the top. The same often happens in life – we make goals, set out to reach them, and there is a joy and excitement at accomplishing them. As I look back over these past three months I can think of quite a number of goals that were reached. In June a team of young gals worked alongside and encouraged a Nicaraguan youth group in doing mimes and dances to reach out to the people in their community. In July my home church sent a team to put on a camp for about 40 youth from Managua. In August a team reached out to the church and community where they were hosted in some creative ways through first aid classes, cooking exchanges and family movie nights, all of which I believe gave the church some new ideas for reaching out into the community. As a ministry we were also able to put on a youth training event eight hours outside Managua and work with a small church in Managua in personal evangelism.
Yet what happens as we head down the mountain? Are we changed because of our experience at the top? Do we allow God to really mold us? Because in the end it is not really about the goal or whether we accomplished it just right – it’s about the journey and how we take each step. God’s desire is for us to walk each step with Him, for the journey to be a reflection of our deep relationship with Him and His deep love for us. Or as Anne, a gal who has been working with us for the past 5 months, always says, “It’s all about Jesus!” Heading down the mountain is not the most exciting or even the easiest part, and most times I think we spend longer going down and living in the valley than we do at the top. So the question is what is it all about as we head down into the valley, back to that which is normal?
Just recently I heard a quote that said if you don’t have a reason to die then you don’t have a reason to live. For me it is during times when I am sick or dealing with the little frustrations of living in a world that is different from that which I was raised in or just in the normal daily activities of life that I often have to remind myself who it is all about. It is definitely exciting to have mountains to climb such as starting an English class for youth leaders at the church I attend in Managua or creating a scholarship program for children to go to school, but it is in the daily steps that we show the world who it is that we are all about or who we are ready to live and die for.
My prayer lately has been to walk each step with God, whether I am cleaning my apartment, giving cookies to a child on the street, saying “no” to the many venders in Managua, dodging taxis in traffic, helping a co-work raise his personal support, planning future teams or projects – whatever it may be that it would be all about Jesus. What is your life all about?
Seeking Him for life,
Amanda Van Deman
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"dale una luz a los que aman tanto vivir en Nicaragua."
~ Guardabarranco (Nicaraguan duo)