For my fellow hikers and lovers of God's creation!

2 Oktober, 2012

Semangat!
I am sitting here with a fantastic sense of peace and joy and I owe that to the goodness of my God!

As week 5 of language class came to an end with a full class, we headed to G. Merbabu for an overnight hike. The seven very intrepid YALTers with varying levels of excitement and two guides approached base camp of the 3145 m. mountain at 6:00pm and ascended the steep and dusty trail. It reminded me of Kamloops, to be honest. Through the trees we could see the village lights between the cities of Magelang and Salatiga and looking up, the sky was a canopy of stars and moonlight. The waxing moon reached its full point at midnight, so flashlights were not always necessary! Unfortunately we dropped one member of our team who was sick at the start, so he had to remain in the car... But the rest of us made it to the 2nd stop/ camping spot. It was pretty cold at this point and we hurriedly set up tents and built a fire. After a quick dinner and a quick solitary lie-down in the grass under the full moon :) we went to bed. I think I slept less than an hour in the 3 hour time span we had to rest. It was so cold! Even for Canadian standards, yes. Oh well. We departed again at the chilly hour of 3:30am to reach the summit by sunrise. I was very excited; some may call it being overtired but I had energy and was stoked to do this! We climbed and clambered up the rocky trail as the moon set and the sky lightened up. Peaks started coming up through the clouds and we could see the villages once again. At the pace we were going, we unfortunately didn't make it to the summit for sunrise (can't cross that off my list of things to do but I don't mind trying again!). But the mountains turned golden as we continued and the view only got better. We reached several posts ("this isn't the top yet??" "5 minutes more") and it was getting quite warm. A group of Papuan students studying at UKSW in Salatiga passed us and practically ran up to the summit. Half our group stopped at the 700m remaining mark as we stared up a really steep cliff. I scrambled up and finally made it to the puncak (summit) at 7:15. Wow. I celebrated with the Papuan guys and turned around and there was G. Merapi, one of the most active volcanoes in the world. Have you ever stared eye-level at a volcano, speechless and jumping for joy inside? That was me that morning! It was unusually clear so you could see every ridge, rice paddy, and the sand slides and ravines left from the 2010 eruption. Amazing! The 3 other members of the group followed shortly and we ate peanuts, hydrated and took many pictures for a short while. It was an amazing experience and man, there is no other feeling like being on top of a mountain! Love it :) I praise the Lord for such joyful experiences and I am excited to have more! As my opening sentence states, my peace and joy was renewed and I really needed this.
We descended slowly and reached camp a few hours later. After a quick breakfast/lunch we headed back to the bottom. I finally started losing steam here and my ingrown toenails made for very uncomfortable shoes. But we all reached the bottom and boom. Mountain "befriended" (or conquered, whichever you prefer)! I crashed that night and spent the next day moving and keeping myself busy. I have to say, I feel great :)

The next day brought more excitement right away, in ways that I wouldn't have readily asked for but it happened. On the way to school I witnessed my first minor traffic accident; unfortunately, it was another YALTer ahead of me. A motorcyclist collided with her from behind and he crashed, the bike coming down on him and his wife. With shouts and crying coming from both sides of the accident, the mess was untangled and it was time for the two of us to use our Indonesian to find a solution and see what the damage was. This is difficult while trying to decide who to see to: comfort your crying friend or see if the other couple are truly alright? This was a little stressful and our language escaped us for the time being! But with the help of a wonderfully helpful passerby we made it to a walk-in clinic about 2 minutes away and our language teachers and MCC contact came to the rescue shortly after. The man required some stitches and the woman was just scratched and bruised. My teammate was quite shaken up but she's ok! I praise the Lord that nothing serious happened and that police were not involved. We learned to be super careful in traffic and that it was just a matter of time before something happened to one of the nine YALTers. Also, that people truly care and that we will not go uncared for during our stay in Indonesia!

Needless to say, I am a little more tired now after all this!
But "The Joy of the LORD is my strength" and  every night I can, with assurance, say that "I will lie down and sleep in peace for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety".