Well, faithful readers, we survived.

I know you were worried. I sure was. But through Christ’s strength, not my own, I made it both in and out of the Copper Canyon. Thank you all for your prayers, without them I fear I would be sitting in the canyon still. But let me tell you, we would do it again to see what we saw, experience what we experienced, and hear the few but powerful stories we heard.

I’m looking forward to writing about our time in the canyon. But for now, I want to share with you about the hike because it emphasizes the true length teams go to in order to help out in the neediest of places.

The hike to Guacaivo descends 4,100 feet into the canyon bottom, then back up the other side for 1,500 feet. It is a long, steep switchback path. It took me four knee-bending, body-sweating, slow-going hours to get down the side of the mountain. At the bottom of the canyon there was a wide river to cross, which we did in a suspended cable car over the river. That, I gotta say, wasn’t Justin’s favourite moment of the trip being so high above the water in a weeny metal frame hung from a rusty looking cable.

We got across the river in one of the last carts to cross and the team started up again right away. Time was not on our side as night was set to fall within a couple hours. We were told that going at a good clip, it would probably take an hour and a half to reach the top which meant I was aiming for about two hours. So we hauled it straight up the mountainside, following and crossing the creek again and again as we made our way up.

An hour and a half up from the river and we were at the orphanage. Praise God! We were absolutely thrilled to make it to Guacaivo from the top of the canyon in five and a half hours, though I was exhausted from the intense physical day.

We saw miracles with the weather and with the circumstances and I praise God for all of it. It was certainly through God’s faithfulness, His strength, that we made it in and out of the canyon. It was as though God took away every possibility that I would depend on my own strength to make to the orphanage in Guacaivo and then back out again four days later.

And in spite of the long day to make it to Guacaivo, still in the evening we were all able to sing a rousing round of ‘Oh Canada’ for our country’s 142nd birthday.