Tang* G village Creation to Christ Bible Teaching Week 4. This time, we took the “hill” trail in an attempt to avoid some of the muddy trails. Of course, the first part of the walk still took us (with me slipping and sliding) through the swampy areas near the village I live in. About half way between the two villages, several people have gardens. It was after we left the gardens that we headed up the hill trail. During my prior trip to G village, I had come down with a cold. As we hiked along, I became very short of breath and realized that my lungs had not fully recovered. While I’m usually impatient when we stop to rest and can’t wait to continue, this day, I was grateful for the 30 minutes rest time in the gardens.
I had never been on the hill trail before. Since it was still raining several times a week (dry season had not yet set in), the trail was muddy, and I did not notice it being significantly less muddy than the other trail we had taken two weeks earlier. However, it did have a lot more ups and downs, and it was longer. I think it took us an extra 45 minutes. It was at the point that I was starting to wonder if I could continue, that I finally caught sight of the houses of an outlying hamlet.
On the return trip, the three ladies I walked back with reversed the process, and we returned to our village via the hill trail while all the other Ina* believers (we learned later) returned by the other trail. The first part of the walk wasn’t bad. As we neared the village, Lucy* started telling me that we were “almost there.” Then we arrived at a hill on one side of a swamp near our village and the ladies pointed out a hill on the other side of the valley and said my house was on the other side of it, I realized just how much further I had to go. I laboriously walked with them up several hills to arrive at an outlying hamlet of our village where Lucy lives. “See!” she said, “I told you we were close!” Just a few moments before, we had been standing on a ridge looking across the swamp at a hill opposite where the office roof was just visible. I wasn’t feeling very close to home, and indeed, I arrived home about an hour later. The good news? I carried my backpack the whole way!
Throughout these two long walks, the most overwhelming thought in my mind was the sufficiency of God’s grace.
And he has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 2 Cor 12:9 (NASB)
*Names changed throughout this blog.