A journey to the clouds

We woke in the wee hours of the morning to board a bus from David to Boquete, Panama. This wasn't just any bus. This was a pimped out, pure white school bus replete with 5 foot chrome exhaust tips, a rainbow of lights on the roof and BOQUETE scrolled in reflective tape across the entire windshield. Not to be forgotten is the latin music blaring in the background, because who doesn't need that at 5 AM? I sat next to the cutest Panamanian man in his late 60s who's femur was half the size of mine. I'm goliath to nearly every person here.

Boquete is a darling little town nestled in some of the best coffee growing mountains in the world. Here we were greeted by two brothers who live in Vulcan (just on the other side of the Volcano from Boquete). They were our guides for the hike. Backpacks full of tents, water, food, clothes and the 7 of us all climbed into a pick-up truck to take us to the base of Volcan Baru. I was able to ride in the bed of the truck with all of the gear, score. There is no better way to enter new surroundings than with the wind in your hair, the scent of dew and pine needles in the air and the unframed view of beautiful hills including the one on the docket to climb.

The climb itself was challenging, at times agonizing. The walk in these clouds was a bit different than the connotation suggests. Steep is an understatement. Every corner reveals a steeper stretch. The path takes you over boulders and crushed stones that make it as if you're walking on marbles. Sweat dripping out of every pore, lungs aching. Carrying 40 pounds on my back my legs couldn't help but tremble. Every so often though, we were rewarded by the beauty around us, it made the pain worthwhile. One spot in particular was so beautiful, so vivid it looked fake. The sun was shining on a large golden hill speckled with granite colored rocks and sparsely scattered trees with silver faced leaves that I'm sure were there for many generations. The clouds started billowing in like the steam from a hot shower fills the bathroom on a cold winter day.

There was a major communication gap between our guides and us. Almost every conversation went like this:

¨So, how far have we gone already?¨
¨Cinco kilometers.¨
¨How long is the entire hike to the top?¨
¨Cinco kilometers.¨
¨How much farther to the camp tonight?¨
¨Cinco mas kilometers.¨
¨How much tomorrow from the camp to the top?¨
¨Cinco kilometers.¨
¨And we've already gone cinco kilometers?¨
¨Si! Cinco mas kilometers!¨

The answer to any and all questions - ¨Cinco mas kilometers.¨

After climbing what is in reality 12.5 kilometers viewing countless thick forests that look like broccoli heads to be plucked and eaten sounding the loudest crunch of all crunches, laughing to the point of tears and peed in pants, and testing our bodies to their limits we made it to camp.

I woke up at 5 AM the next morning to hike the last kilometer to the top just in time for the sunrise. The 11,398 ft. summit is marked by an 8 foot tall cross, it´s the highest point in Panama and allows you to see both the Pacific and the Caribbean at the same time. At the top there was a girl sitting in the cold, windy darkness reading her Bible. She had made it to the top just a few hours before that. She´s a med student from NYC, Eileen. I introduced myself and she said ¨Yeah, I'm just up here reading my Bible. This whole hike I couldn't help but think of God and thank him. It's so moving seeing all of this is. Such a spiritual experience.¨ I couldn't agree more, I shared the scripture in Romans with her about how things this beautiful make God's existance inexcusable.

It's without words to describe watching the sun rise from that vantage point was. Literally breathtaking. It's majestic beauty pulls hard at your heart strings. I couldn't help but think of how the sun eventhough incredibly powerful, faithfully rises over those mountains every day but doesn't have the capacity to know how beautiful it is, or to show any appreciation for it's surroundings, it's existence. I felt puny in relation to my surroundings standing on the top of that volcano. A speck of dust. And yet, we have the unmatched privilege to comprehend creation itself. We as humans out of all other earthly creations are able to give God our heart, to thank him for every good thing he provides, and live in a way the proves our appreciation. Powerful.

The hike down seemed like an actual walk in the clouds. However, I've never been more aware of every muscle in my body as I was the next day. The volcano physically kicked my butt!

Back island side we had 5 students come to the meeting Saturday! One is Nadine. She's a very educated woman for this area. She has a degree in literature and science and up until recently had a prestigious job. A Brother and Sister that are currently visiting found her about 2 weeks ago. She's absolutely fed up with religion and the hypocrisy of it all. During the watchtower study on showing love she made a comment that will stick with me for a long time. She said ¨You can't just go to people saying 'Hi, I'm here to talk about the Bible.' People's hearts are getting hard. You have to find another way. Go to them with a smile, a song, let the people know you really care about them. Because I'm telling you, the last few weeks it worked for me, it worked. I felt the love that this is talking about.¨ Sincere personal interest, love, never fails. After the meeting I asked her what she had thought of it. She said ¨Oh, I loved it! I hate churchy things and all the jumping up and down and the minister going on and on about things and you just sit there thinkin 'what are you saying??' But this, this was so nice!!¨

The work continues!