Climbing

'On Belay?’
‘Belay On’
‘Climbing.’
‘Climb on!’

Thus begins one of my favorite new pastimes-rock climbing. I love it because it’s a challenge (and because it’s fun). To get to the top of a route (the section of wall or rock you’re climbing) you have to use all of your brain and your body, and quite often, you have to make risky, almost crazy maneuvers—pushing up on one leg while reaching with another, aiming to get your finger into a narrow crevice and grip strongly enough to pull up far enough to put your right foot on that tiny ledge above your hip so you can take a breath and start over again. To make those moves, you need not only strength and brain and nerves, but an unflagging trust in the person who holds the other end of the rope to which you’re attached-your belayer (the guy on the right in the picture below, taken before I started a climb)) who essentially holds your life in his hands. A good belayer never takes his eyes off of his climber, is always ready with encouragement and guidance when the climber is stymied or about to try a difficult move, and when the climber falls (as beginners like me generally do more than once while attempting a route) he’s ready to stop them. (Blake teaches Lauren and I to belay and we give it a try in the pictures below)



The reason I tell you all of this (no, this has not been a commercial for Rock Climbers of America) is that God has, as He often does, used this ‘non-ministry’ experience to speak to me about ministry. A week or so after my first outdoor climbing experience, I was assigned to lead the summer program for the neighborhood kids. I was more than a little overwhelmed by the prospect-I had just a few weeks of urban ministry under my belt, was just barely making it through Character Club (our weekly bible study with the neighborhood kids) with my sanity intact, and was making very little headway building relationships with the girls in the study-and now, I was supposed to be not just helping, but planning and running a program multiple times a week with those same kids. In my quiet time one day that week, I was thinking about climbing--one of those mental tangents that are most of the time just distracting, but which God sometimes redeems, as He did this time when He broke into my digression to draw a parallel. I was facing, in leading the summer program, what looked like an insurmountable obstacle. It would take everything I had--no, more than I had--to get to the top. But I could almost hear God saying to me ‘Beth, this is a difficult route, but I’m on belay-I’ve got you-climb on!’

I didn’t end up directing the summer program. I started the climb, and was grateful at several points on the route to remember that God was on belay. But I was even more grateful for the practice in trusting when, in mid-June, our base director asked me to pray about taking over as the Director of Richmond Ropes, our high and low ropes challenge course. After I prayed and understood that God was, indeed, saying ‘climb on,’ I started my most challenging climb yet. First, I had to figure out (or shut up long enough to hear God telling me) how leading the ropes course fit into my calling to minister to at-risk teenagers. God showed me that almost everything about the ropes course-from the experiential method of learning to the lessons of servanthood, interdependence, encouragement, achievement, and responsibility (among others) is tailor-made to reach the kids I’m called to. That, in effect, He was handing me the perfect tool for the job. Since then, every day has presented new challenges-recruiting, directing and caring for staff, bringing groups to the course, budgeting, planning, training and many more. I don’t manage it all the time, but more and more I’m standing at the bottom of the routes that God puts in front of me and remembering to say ‘On Belay?’ and after hearing His affirmative response, to say ‘Ok, God, I’m climbing’ to which He always replies ‘Climb on!’



Praise God with Me:
+ For the way He’s led me these last few months and provided me with this amazing tool (the ropes course) for urban ministry.

+ For my recent trip to Nashville and the fellowship and new partners He blessed me with while I was there.

+ For His provision even outside of partners: I am constantly amazed at how I need or even just want, things and then they drop into my lap. A friend asks for a ride to the airport and offers to fill my gas tank when it’s way below ‘E.’ Another friend is moving and gives me her tennis shoes that won’t fit in her luggage-when mine are about to give up the ghost. So many fun stories, so little time.

Please Pray with Me:
+ That I will continue to hear and heed God’s encouragement and guidance as I climb. That I could face challenges well and also find balance between my continued work with the urban department and the responsibilities of leading the ropes course (in this picture, my two worlds collide as we take ground games from the ropes course to character club-fun times!).

+That God will guide and show favor as I make calls to previous groups and potential groups to try to schedule time on the course.

+ That God will raise up and equip part time and full time staff to join Nehemias (my assistant director), our current part time staff, and I in this ministry (Camila, in this picture, is one of my volunteer summer staff).

+ That God will raise up partners for Nehemias and I so that, with our financial needs covered, we can focus solely on the ministry at hand.

+ That God will heal the bacterial skin infection I’ve had since July-I’m on my second round of antibiotics with a side of steroid cream and am definitely ready for some relief.