I Will Climb This Mountain With My Hands Wide Open

Wow, we’re getting pretty close to the end here. Only 2 weeks left until the team is back in Pichilemu for the DTS graduation and less than a week left in Ecuador. We’re in the town of Porto Vijeho for 9 days and we’re partnered with a church named Luz & Liberdad (Light and Liberty) and the majority of the congregation is between 18-28 and their pastor is only 36 years old. I really like this church so far they’ve received us really warmly and this pastor seems to really like me in particularly. He told me that he believes that I have the gift of healing and that I need to set aside time daily to pray for people.

I was asked to preach last Sunday and I only had the morning before church started at 10am to prepare a message but luckily for me the pastor had invited us YWAMers along on the youth-group trip to mountain climb MontiChristi the day before and it was ripe with Biblical applications. I thought I’d share with you guys a little bit of my message.

First off, the excursion almost didn’t happen. We got to the visitors center of the mountain and they told us that we’d need to buy a permit to climb the mountain and also hire a guide; also this process needs to be done in advance so the guide knows to meet you at the base of the climb. However that didn’t stop us, it was going to be harder we were told but one of the locals, but you could climb it yourself if you walked around to a different side of the mountain. So that’s what we did. I related this to the fact that God had a different path than I had originally planned to get to where He wanted me to go. I didn’t know everything that YWAM would entail when I signed up and in many ways life here has been exceedingly harder than life at home but this was God’s plan to get me to the top of the mountain.

Alright, so we start climbing what sort of resembles a “trail” but the Pogonip loop this is NOT. This was definitely one of the most challenging climbs I’ve ever done with the majority of the way been extremely steep so that you have to pull your way up by grabbing roots on all fours. The weather over here is extremely hot Fresno-in-the-summer type dry heat and this alternative route we were taking seemed to go on forever. This wasn’t going to be the nature walk the pastoral staff had been planning this was going to be extremely difficult and half the group ended up not being able to make it to the top. Just like this experience ended up taking a lot longer than we thought it was going to take my time in South America is shaping up to be the same. I didn’t know when I left Santa Cruz that I’d be spending a year down here but I’ve received word after word to take the Counseling School and I’m going for it. I knew I was supposed to change my plane ticket before I left on this outreach because as this time draws near it’s end I’m finding myself extremely tired and worn out. I think that changing my plane ticket at this point would have been much harder than changing it 3 months ago.

I think we’d been climbing for about 2 hours, we were out of water, drenched in sweat and I know we were all considering if it was really worth it to get to the top of this mountain (some of the group had already given up). This guitar player from the youth group David and I were blazing the trail and we found a little spot that we could sit in the shade and catch our breath and to our surprise some guy was already enjoying the spot we’d seen. He said that he’d always wanted to climb this mountain and today he’d decided to give it a try. Seeing that we were thirty he pulled out of his backpack a big gallon jug of water and some cups. I related this to the way that God encourages us in the times and ways that we least expect it. David and I needed water on the side of this mountain and God totally provided for us. God also answered a prayer request of mine 2 days earlier. I hadn’t driven my motorcycle in over 5 months and I’d been missing it big time. What made it worse is that motorcycles as super popular in Ecuador because since its right underneath the Equator it’s really warm all year round (were talking freeway speeds without needing to wear more clothes than a t-shirt). Anyways, I’d prayed that I’d get an opportunity to ride someone’s bike and sure enough in one of the houses that volunteered to feed us there was a kid who had a bike that he let me ride for about 10 minutes. It wasn’t long but it was an answer to prayer, and I shared the testimony when I was giving this message. After I’d finished preaching one of the brother in the church asked me if I wanted to drive his motorcycle around until our lunch was ready, and this time I got to ride around for over an hour, along these trails overlooking an enormous forest! Totally God giving me surprise encouragement and letting me know that I’m on the right path.

We ended up making it to the top of the hill and even though I have over six months left here in South America I know that metaphorically I’ll complete this journey as well. I received a verse this week that I always used to hate but reading it on this DTS shown fresh light on it.

Hebrews 5:12-14

“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good from evil.”

I never liked these verses before because I’d think “I’ve been a Christian for over 20 years, I’ve definitely graduated to solid food by now. The devil will always play on our pride and make us think that we don’t need to continue up the mountain and improve.

Something important I’d like to add
In less than one month the counseling school in Pichilemu starts and I don’t have enough money for the whole thing. If you’ve been following this blog and feel led to support me I’d be very grateful; I’ve been praying about this counseling school a lot and I believe that God will provide the money for it, if you do feel led to donate your gift will be tax-deductible because I’m partnered with Missionary Christian Fellowship and they’ll mail you the donation receipt for your taxes. Their address is:

Missionary Christian Fellowship, 3 Linden Road, Watsonville, CA, 95076, USA
Please put my name “Joshua Toback” in the notes section of the check so they know whose account to put it in.

Here I am preaching at Light &Liberty’s sister church that’s still under construction, known as “The 12”.

And afterwards, as is the routine after any event, there’s a group photo!

90 degrees, new bike I’ve never ridden, night time, no helmet… Let’s Ride!

This is a shot from the town that is below Mt. MontiChristi

This is our group walking up the road to the trailhead of the mountain.

Now this is South America! People don’t bring water on a hike they bring Coca-Cola. Seriously it’s like living in an age when people still thought cigarettes were healthy :)

I ruined my 3 year old jeans but I made it to the top!