Niko - Surrender, Sacrifice, and Servanthood

NIKO
In Greek, the word ‘niko’ means overcome, and that is what my team set out to do in the mountains surrounding the city of Ensenada, Mexico, last week. All eleven of us packed and were sent out into the wilderness for three and a half days. Here was our packing list:
· Three shirts
· One pair of pants and one pair of shorts
· Underwear/ socks
· Toothbrush
· Sleeping bag
· Flashlight
· Towel
· Bathing suit
· Bowl and silverware
· Bible
That’s it, meaning no deodorant, no toothpaste, no shampoo or soap. Our leaders checked our bags and made sure none of us were cheating, drove us to our destination, grouped us into teams (side note: I was the only girl on my team) and told us head south west. Our team did some quick directional thinking, without any instruments to guide us, and began hiking into the mountains. Approximately thirty minutes later, we arrived to our first of many destinations. There we picked up our food that was to last us for 3 days and got further instructions. This is what they gave a team of five for food:
· Nine pieces of bread
· Five cans of beans
· Five small cans of tuna
· Powdered milk
· Small bag of trail mix
· Small bag of granola
This food was meant to last us for three days, and I was on a team of men, I had no idea how we were going to stretch the food over that many days, but I continually asked God to provide. As a side note, remember that none of us knew what to expect, we only heard that this was going to be ‘hell’ from girls who had done it before. Before we set out I made a deal with myself, “I am not going to complain, and I am going to overcome this, to prove everyone wrong.” Maybe I had the wrong motivations, but I was determined none the less.
Back to the story: In the next set of directions we received, we were told to go east. They gave us a compass finally and we set out in the direction east. Carrying large backpacks, we moved rather quickly our first day, but at one point, my team verged from the correct path. Although we had one person who knew the way on our team, they weren’t allowed to tell us when we strayed. So our team walked for an hour and half in the wrong direction. We ran out of water and the one with the worst sense of direction on the team, me, kept on saying, “I think we should turn around”. But the others were men and they knew what they were doing. Finally they decided that we should turn around and after a while, we were back on the right trail and arrived exhausted and late to our destination.
The guys had already eaten all of the bread and a can of beans, and I was really concerned. If this was merely our first day, and we had already eaten that much, I didn’t know what we would do the next days when we were more tired and more hungry. But, God provides for our needs, and this is a beautiful thing. I told the guys that we probably shouldn’t eat any more food for that day, and they all agreed. So we were planning to go to bed hungry. But then our team leaders pulled out a box, and said, “We’re having chicken to night. The only thing is, you have to catch and kill it.” They opened the box and four skinny chickens jumped out and began running all over the place. That night I had been chosen to be team leader and the guys thought it was appropriate that the ‘team leader’ kill the chicken. So we caught the chicken and had a demonstration of how to kill a chicken. The leaders handed me a dull knife, and I killed my first, and only, chicken. I am never doing that again even if I am about to die. We then preceded to remove the feathers, skin, and internal organs of the chicken, and finally we cooked it.
So God provided us dinner, and we didn’t get semolina like we had a different time, praise the Lord. After speaking on sacrifice and having worship, we all went to bed. In the middle of the night, the sound of a horn woke us up, and we were told to pack. We put all our belongings into our bags, and then the leaders told us to start hiking east, once again. It was about 2:30 a.m. when we began our trek with flashlights. I had blisters all over my feet by that time, and the blisters started bleeding about an hour into our hike. We had no idea where we were going; it was such an example of blind faith. We could barely see in front of us, or where the edge of the path was. The only hope that we ever had was the headlights of our cars in the far off distance, but even then we couldn’t find a path that led to the cars. We were hiking for about two and a half hours into the night when finally we arrived at the cars. We passed out from exhaustion and slept until about 8:00 a.m.
That morning, we were once again given directions. We hiked for seven hours up a mountain and we were all in so much pain. We were hungry, tired, sun burnt, some of us had sores on our feet, but we kept pressing on. Once we arrived at the location, most of us simply fell asleep on rocks, anywhere where there was shade. My team had eaten all of the granola that morning along with most of the trail mix. We had two cans of tuna for lunch and a can of beans. So we had about three cans of beans left for that night and for the next day.
Our leaders then led us to the ocean and told us to bathe. The water here in Ensenada is much colder than it is at home, and in this particular area, the water was like ice. We all went into this rocky area where we were beaten about by the waves and we tried to bathe. This was so difficult, but after, we were at least clean from the packed on dirt and sweat of two days hiking. That night God provided once again with food. We had hot soup and then we went to sleep under the stars. I cannot describe how beautiful it was at night. There was no civilization near by and thus there were no lights. The stars were brilliantly bright and the moon just glowed. It was the brightest moon I had ever seen.
The next morning we woke around 6 a.m. and started to prepare for another day of hiking. I was so sore. My feet were cut and torn and my legs were tired. I remember just being so desperate. I prayed, “Lord, I cannot walk anymore. I made a commitment that I would not complain, but I just ask that you would carry through today. I can not walk any farther.” Once we got up and had packed some of our things, Erin and I began to look for a place to go to the restroom, out of sight. Once we moved off of our tarp, where we were sleeping we found a dead tarantula as big as my hand out-stretched. I about had a heart attack. I could not believe that I had been sleeping that close to a spider with fangs. At least it was dead, I kept reminding myself. Erin and I kept walking and found a place, and not more than two seconds later, I spotted a living one. I freaked out. Evidently the place we were camping at was full of theses hairy, nasty spiders. It gives a whole new meaning to “Good night, sleep tight; don’t let the bed bugs bite.” Oh yes, tarantulas, my newest fear.
Once Erin and I made our way back to our group, we heard our next set of directions. We were going to stay with a family in the colonias for one and a half days to be servants. We were driven to different colonias to the poorer parts and with one other person, we lived with the family. Erin and I were paired together and put with a family where we helped to clean dishes, care for the kids, clean their floors, and learn how to make tortillas (now we can officially marry, hah!). God really taught us humility and adaptability. I cannot express how blessed we were to go through this growing experience. We experienced dependence on Christ, unity as a team, and the reality of life in Mexico. God opened our eyes and taught us through experience. I love the verse in 2 Corinthians where Paul wrote about his ‘thorn in the flesh’. God spoke to him, saying “ My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness,” and God’s power was definitely made perfect in our weaknesses throughout niko. God gave us grace to complete this task and provided in many ways as we ventured through the mountains of Ensenada and lived among the local families.