Adventure in the Mountains: Surprised by Suffering by Todd

We just returned from the wettest, muddiest, sloppiest and most dangerous experience I have ever had on a short term mission’s trip. For the third time in the last two months we trekked up high into the mountains of an interior province in Panama to a village called Los Machos. On our first trip God enabled us to plant a church with thirty new believers that had surrendered their lives to Christ while we were there. On our second trip we took bibles to this new group of believers. On this trip we took ten people with us from our church in Panama City to continue to work with the people of the village.

I have been on many short term mission trips and they all have their share of difficulties and discomforts. But this one was unique in that aspect. It wasn’t necessarily that it was more difficult, physically speaking, than any other trip but it was more challenging in a specific way.

As with most of these trips a theme began to form on the first day. All of us became aware of something very specific that God was trying to teach us and it became clear that He was going to manufacture events throughout the trip to drive the point home in each of our hearts.

On the second day we were there one of our team members shared a devotional in which he took us to 1st Peter chapter 4 vs 12 and 13. The idea here, which he communicated well, is that we shouldn't be surprised by suffering and difficulties. But yet we are. We always are surprised.

The first day as we neared the village we suddenly stopped at a home that was about a mile short of the place that we were going to be staying. This surprised me. Especially given the fact that there were three steep hills to climb yet and we had fourteen five gallon water bottles as well as three very heavy crates and a gas generator to carry not to mention all of our personal bags. I have been on enough of these trips to know that stopping meant that the trucks could not go any further and that we would have to walk the rest of the way carrying all of our luggage and equipment. Yet I was still surprised. It also surprised me when the drivers of the trucks could not be talked into accepting less than the agreed upon price due to the fact that they didn't take us to the agreed upon destination.

What happened next shouldn't have surprised me but it did. As soon as we started up the hill it began to rain. So now not only did we have to navigate the steepness of the hill but we had to deal with the slickness of the mud. After getting thoroughly soaked and quite muddy we finally were settled into our camp about two hours later.

The rest of the night was quite uneventful as we had a team meeting and ate dinner in the dark before turning into our tents for an early night as we were all exhausted from a combination of a very early start (3:00 A.M.) and the days arduous events. It rained steadily throughout the night. When we awoke the next morning, the weather was quite pleasant. The sun could be seen to the east piercing through the clouds trying to make a comeback. We all got up and got dressed and had some personal prayer time with the Lord and then we had another team meeting which consisted of some singing and devotions as well as preparatory training for the day of ministry. During all of this it didn't rain. I was beginning to feel hopeful. Then as we were almost ready to leave the camp and the shelter of a roof it began to rain. Now I cannot speak for anyone else but once again, I was surprised.

This pattern continued throughout the four days that we were there. The times that we were under shelter or in our tents the rain would slow down or stop but when we came out into the open it would literally pour. This constant deluge made it difficult for us to accomplish what we came there to do. We had a soccer clinic planned but due to the continuous rain we had to hold the clinic in a building that had a roof but no walls. This was the same place where we planned to show the Jesus film at night. After the kids came to the soccer clinic (there were considerably less than we thought there would be due to the rain) we had to clean the muddy mess up as best we could using tree branches as brooms. Then as we prepared to show the film the rain began to come down harder then it had thus far. And the wind began to blow. Suffice it say, less people came to the presentation than we expected. Once again, our best laid plans were being challenged.

On the day that we left, the sun came out in the morning and it cleared up as much as it had at any time since we arrived. The sky actually stayed clear and sunny until almost noon. Then suddenly as we started packing up our gear we could see the clouds scurry into position as fast as they could in order to dump their contents upon us at the exact time that we began to climb back down the steep hill in order to meet the trucks where they had dropped us off. You may be able to guess by now that this surprised and annoyed me. I was still somewhat surprised when only one truck showed up to carry all twelve of us and all of our gear down the muddy hill. I was surprised but lacked the strength to protest. So we loaded all of our thou roughly soaked gear and personal bags onto the truck and we all piled quite precariously on top of the gear and started our trek down the hill.

Now I want to pause to make sure that you envision this correctly in your mind. We were camped at about 5,000 feet above sea level. Now we were making our way down an extremely steep hill which bordered extremely deep cliffs and which contained large ruts filled with mud in an overloaded pick up truck. At this point surprise or even frustration gave way to fear!!! I could literally feel the truck sliding in the mud as it regularly lost traction on the road and we veered dangerously close to the cliff. During all of this our faithful friend the rain made it’s presence known in sheets. All of these circumstances did not seem to impress upon the driver the need to drive any slower or more cautiously than he would if it was a perfectly clear day.

When we arrived at the bottom of the mountain where we were supposed to cross the river it became increasingly apparent to all of us that crossing the river was not an option. The river had quadrupled in size and velocity from four days earlier when we first crossed it. After checking another crossing point that was completely flooded as well we suddenly stopped in front of a swinging wooden bridged perched about twenty feet above the raging river. The driver calmly got out and told us to leave the equipment in the truck and get out. His plan was for us to cross the bridge while he tried to cross the river somewhere else. This we did with much trepidation as the bridge shacked and shimmied beneath our feet.

Much to our surprise the truck with all of our equipment met us at the other side of the bridge just after the last of our party crossed it. He had actually crossed the river. The mud and watermarks streaked across the windows of the cab. I don’t even want to know how he did it. At this point the other truck joined us and we all piled into it. As we drove down the rest of the way on terrain that was much more stable I began to sense God’s guiding hand through all of this. We later found out that rumblings were going throughout the village that we should have never made it, down the mountain or across the river. Wow! God delivered us once again. But is that all He wanted to teach us was that he could deliver us? For me there was more to learn.