Tungurahua

Tungurahua

I was privileged to serve on mission in one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my entire life, Ecuador as I attended M-Fuge International with a small group of youth from my church as a chaperone along with our youth pastor.  That mission trip was life-changing for many reasons. We stayed at Campamento Bautista, high in the Andes mountains. The camp is literally located on top of a mountain, and the mountain right next to it is an active volcano named Tungurahua. That volcano rumbled and belched smoke and fire from the moment we arrived until the moment we left. It was magnificent!  At night you could see the ring of fire as lava bubbled up around the tip of its cone. By day you could see the smoke it emitted as a permanent cloud around the top.  Just when you got used to it, it would rumble and bellow and you would be in awe of it yet again.  The evidence of its activity was all around us. Roads that had been completely enveloped in lava and ash had been rerouted and you could see where the lava flow had poured down the mountain during the last big eruption.  Yet I was never scared of Tungurahua. I respected it, I admired it, I was in awe of it, but I wasn’t scared of it.  That beautiful volcano was burning with fire day and night. It never ceased to remind us that it was there. Tungurahua taught me to stay on fire for the Lord.

During the day, we were the hands and feet of Jesus to villagers in La Paz at the local school.  We shared Jesus during Bible School and then cleaned and painted the school for the kids and teachers.  We showed love the best way we could.  At night, we worshiped together on top of that mountain. It was the first place I ever heard Revelation Song and I will forever think of that mountaintop and those holy hands lifted high as that song echoed off of the mountainside.  It taught me to never take my worship experience for granted.

This was also the trip that I was privileged to see young men and women totally and radically commit their lives to Christ.  These young people began to live for Jesus in ways they couldn’t even have imagined before. Some were called to the ministry full time, and some were called to love God more fully.  It taught me to look at young people with fresh eyes.

It was as if the fire inside of Tungurahua mimicked the fire that was being stoked inside all of us. God did something awesome inside each of us on that trip. I never hear Revelation Song that I don’t think of that mountaintop experience and holy hands lifted high. And I pray for the young people of our nation that they too might experience something magnificent in their lives that turns them completely upside down for Christ.  I will never be the same, and that’s a good thing. Jeremiah 24:7 says, “'I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the LORD; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart.”  This is what happened for us in Ecuador. God drew us close to Him as only He could, and radically changed the way we thought about Him. He can do that for each of us when we open ourselves up to possibilities. I pray that you will allow Him to do the same for you.