God & Nature

On the 2nd of July, the Flying Garudas, were excited for their 2 nights / 2 days 4th of July weekend. They started with lock-in at the CIASDA Church and opening worship, which was lead by Master Guide Barry Manembu. Several adventurers, youth, and parents were present as well. After worship, they had dinner, which then continued with several activities before lights out.

The next morning, they started with breakfast, and ended their stay with morning worship before everything was loaded in the vehicles.

Next activity, was hiking. Many wanted to take the short distance, and once it was reached, they decided to take the farther route, to reach the water fall.

After the hike, majority of the youth headed to the campsite at Chief Hosa for the last leg of the activity. They unload, built camp, and spend the night with Nature.

The program then ended on the morning of 4th of July with a closing devotion, brought by the Flying Garudas' Pathfinder director, Brianna Sondakh. She reminded us, like Joshua of the Bible, that God would never leave us nor forsake us.

The takeaway:

I'm sure to many, it was a tiring event. But to start from the church, a house of worship, and ended in nature, I found many profound and symbolical lessons of how Christians should walk with Christ.

As babies in Christian walk, young people, we need to find shelter in Christ. We need to be in His presence every moment of our life.

And as we hike through our mountain-of-life, we will get tired, we will find obstacles on our way, we may fall and stumble. However, we ought to remember that God will continue to be there with us and He'll be there to quench us with living water from the never ending fountain.

Though we sleep in the mid of darkness, we need to continue to let the light burn. For it will keep us warm, and it will brighten our surrounding from darkness.

There was a tent filled with a Caucasian family next to ours. They were about 8 - 10ft away and we're pretty sure they were not part of our church.

At night, as their children were brushing their teeth to get ready to sleep, I greeted them.

In the morning as I was packing and cleaning the campsite, their grandfather came to speak to me.

Before I tell you what he had to say, mind you, that in our tent, we had a baby of 1 year old, a 4 year old boy and a 6 year old girl, along with 2 grown parents. Normally, at home, we're the loudest bunch, especially at night. But during that night, we tried our best to stay as quiet as possible, yes, even the little one.

So as I was packing, the grandfather came to me and told me how amazed he was to see many young people with us. And to see a 1 year old, he praised us for allowing the youth to be exposed with nature.

No, there's nothing that we did that is worth of praise. However, the God who formed us in our mother's womb, the one that created the genetic DNA of the nature we see around us, He will be the one to lead us through our walk of life and through the dark times. All He asked from us is to be strong and courageous, to follow His commandment so that we can find the true freedom in Him.

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." -Joshua 1:9 NKJV