Paul's PNG Mission Trip - Ep 13

[pandrews]

(September 1st, 2010)

The human body is amazingly adaptable. Athletes train their bodies to
preform amazing feats of dexterity, skill and speed. Even the average
person can train their body to preform certain tasks better: if you
jog
for thirty minutes every day this week, next week it'll be easier.
The
Penale people have trained their bodies in this manor as well, and
recently I had the opportunity to test my body in their environment.

A little over a week ago it was time for me to head to Kaiam again.
This involved a MAF flight to Munduku and a canoe trip up river.
However, since the water levels were low because of the dry season, it
also required a several hour bush walk. To start out with, I was
pleasantly surprised that the heat of Munduku, while still hot, was
not
nearly as oppressive as I had found it on my first trip to the
Karawari
river. My body has started to adapt to the environment here. After
landing, we quickly loaded the canoe, hopped in and motored our way up
river to our night destination. The next day also found us out on the
river where we arrived at what was to be our second night stay and the
base camp for our walk the next day. Since it was only three in the
afternoon, I decided that I would like to get started on the hike
today. I found out that it takes the Penale people about five hours
to
cover the distance. I figured my youthful body and moderate hiking
experiance was sufficiant to make the journey in less time. It was
not...

We started out at a rockets pace, walking as quickly over small logs
as
I would have walked on any smooth surface anywhere else. Our pace
didn't slow when the bush became thicker. Soon I was stooping under
trees and bushes, hopping over logs, avoiding poky vines, slipping in
the muddy surface, balancing on felled trees to cross gorges, and
attempting to keep pace with my trail guides. I checked my watch and
about an hour and a half in, I could tell I was running out of steam.
Since I was wearing my sandals (and they were wearing into my foot) I
took a short rest brake to switch to my hiking shoes. The first
stream
crossing showed this to be a poor option as now I walked with weighted
feet while my guides sloshed through in their bare feet and kept
walking
at the same pace as before.

After it got dark things only got worse. My body was tired, my legs
hurt, my back was in a constant state of toe touches (preceded by
shouts
at me of "Down-em head!"), and my feet were unable to navigate the
slippery uneven surface. By the time we arrived in Kaiam seven hours
after we started (including an hour worth of intermittent breaks) I
was
beaten, bruised, and slightly injured from pulled muscles sustained on
the journey.

My body is not adapted to this activity. It took me the entire next
day
to recuperate to a "useful" condition.

However my guides are perfectly at home with this type of activity,
and
went back to our base camp early the next morning to help carry gear
that I obviously couldn't carry on my person.

God has made the human body magnificently, and no amount of technology
seems to be able to replicate (or really even compete with) the
versatility of even our feet. Perhaps that is one reason why He calls
our bodies His temple...

How will you utilize the temple God gave you today?

Paul
http://zloof.blogspot.com/
http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=14786