You Better Belize I'm a Farmer: Marathon Training and Lost Sheep

Once upon a time, long ago, I got suckered into running a half marathon. For those of you who have trained for a race, you know that it takes a lot of training to be successful. People usually start months beforehand to prepare for the big day. Although it is possible for some people to run the full marathon with little preparation, they are usually suffering the next couple of days. The last month of life has felt a bit like a marathon for me. I’ll share just the highlights from the journey.

Christmas was only a month ago?!?!? That sounded weird in my head when I wrote that. It seems like an eternity ago. It was quite a pleasant day spent with friends and “family”. My ND family spent the day visiting, sledding, and riding in a one-ox-open sleigh. Although it was nothing fancy, it was probably one of my favorite Christmases to date. That weekend after Christmas I frantically packed up my little bunk house, loaded my car, and headed east to meet up with some friends who were driving to GYC (a youth conference). Early Sunday morning we headed east in hopes of getting ahead of the coming blizzard. As it happened, we didn’t actually beat the storm, rather we stayed in it almost the entire day. Praise the Lord the only setback was a temporary parking job in the ditch! As our two-vehicle caravan neared Louisville two days later, we parted ways. I made a quick trip to Ohio to unload some of my belongings while the bus made its way to The Ark Encounter. GYC was a big blessing, not only for the spiritual revival, but also for the chance to see some friends. I returned to Ohio to get ready for the next phase of life.

Monday, January 13, 2020, almost 7 years exactly since I moved to Belize, I moved to Colombia. The trip was fine; no incidents to report. In conjunction with MOVE (the school where I worked in Belize) we planned to have a summit for missionaries. I have never really used this word to describe an event like this, but basically it was a time to inspire and equip missionaries who are out in the field now. Although it required many sleepless nights and stressful days, I am thankful for the blessing it was to us all. I look forward to being reunited with all my new friends when we go to heaven if I don’t get to see them before Jesus comes back.

Sometimes it is hard to know why certain things happen, but I have to trust that God has a better plan even if things seem to go in a different direction than I planned. Thursday morning, the day after the summit, the MOVE group was going to be heading to the airport at 4 am. I woke up to make sure I could say goodbye to them. My other friend, Yaneth, was planning to leave at 5:30 to get a bus to the city. I didn’t have my alarm set, but I happened to wake up right about that time. As I got out of bed, I noticed that Yaneth was just about to start walking down the hill to town. I asked her if she knew how to get to the bus, but she didn’t seem 100% sure. I told her I would walk down the driveway a bit until I could show her exactly where to go. It was such a pleasure to walk and talk with her since I had been so busy the previous few days. We made it to the paved road where I could send her along her way. I gave her one more hug then turned back home with Sirena, our dog. Sirena wanted to continue to follow Yaneth and not return home with me. We tried and tried to get her to come back with me but she only wanted to accompany Yaneth. Suddenly, we heard a motorbike coming around the corner. The paved road is very narrow and curvy; it is hard to see someone coming around the corner. Since it was still dark out, I made sure to move to the far side of the road so that the motorbike wouldn’t hit me on the inside of the corner. Turns out that another motorbike was coming from the other direction. Sirena went to chase the moto on the far side of the road and ran right in front of the moto on my side. The driver hit her square in the side and crashed, throwing both the driver and the passenger to the ground! I quickly ran over to two people on the ground. The boy who was driving got up quickly, but the girl with him was only shouting, “My back, my back hurts”. I knew she couldn’t stay in the middle of the road because the traffic would run us over since we were still on a curve. I moved her as best I could to the side where the water drains. Not knowing if she had serious damage (neither were wearing helmets) I stabilized her head and had Yaneth call back home to my friend, Oscar, who is an EMT. As we waited for Oscar to arrive, I started talking to her to get her to calm down. I told her who I was and about the summit. I asked her questions to make sure she was staying with me. Finally, Oscar arrived with his medical supplies. He did an assessment of her and asked her various questions. He found that nothing seemed to be broken, but advised her to go to the hospital to get a final checkout. We prayed with her and Yaneth got her contact information. I don’t know what happened after that, but I’m sure she had lots of questions following this little accident: why me? who is this gringa? what is she doing in my country? why did she stay to help me? In reality, I will probably never see that girl again on earth, but I pray that perhaps because of our encounter she can get to know God and we can meet in heaven. When I got home, I could not find Sirena. I knew she had to be hurt, but unfortunately she had not run home. After worship, three of us went out looking for her. We called her name repeatedly but still had no sign of her presence. As I was wandering up and down the driveway calling her name, looking in the brush, I could only imagine Jesus looking for one of His lost sheep. I have only known Sirena for a few days now, yet I didn’t want to give up searching for her. I can’t even imagine what God must feel for someone He created who is lost. It must break His heart to know that He can show His sheep the way, yet the sheep decide to stay lost. It is my prayer that in the midst of all the busyness of life we never forget that we are here to be His witnesses.