"He who watches over you will neither slumber nor sleep"

Psalm 121
A song of ascents.
1 I lift up my eyes to the hills— where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD watches over you— the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life;
8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

Day 12: Tiger Leaping Gorge (part 1)

I have never done so much hiking in my life, I think. I have *really* been missing out. This trail that we've been on is actually used by all the people who live in the villages through this gorge. This is their road. I can't even imagine having to walk this every day to get to the next village or to take your goats grazing or something. There are places where the road is a few feet wide and relatively flat and doesn't slope or anything, but most of the hike has been up steep, narrow paths and back down again. And keep in mind that this entire hike is at an elevation higher than Mt. Tai's. We've been through a few villages and fields. Most of the time you can't really see the river, we're too far up the mountainside. In the morning while we were starting our climb, the sun was just coming up over the top of the mountains that we were facing. It was AWESOME. There is just no other word to describe it. We had some minor annoyances in the form of guys riding horses following us for several hours, hoping we would just give up and ride the horses. We didn't. The roads are either just dust (at least 3 different colors of dust -- my jeans will never be clean again, and my shoes will never be black again) or rocks. The dust makes it so dry that you have to keep putting on lip stuff, and the sun is so much closer and brighter that if you don't put on sunblock you end up pulling a Bob the Tomato (which I did....sorry Mom! I learned my lesson). By the time we made it to our little guest house (called the "Halfway Guesthouse" -- just over halfway to the end) my legs decided to hate me. My calves were getting some serious cramps, and I was worried about having to hike more the next day. But God is good and my legs healed enough to keep going. It was so neat walking through all these different villages along the way and realizing that people actually live in them. Wow. I am such a selfish creature, and seeing people living in these conditions makes me realize that even more. In fact, it makes me want to join them and live a simpler life for a while. Sometimes I just want to close up shop and move away on my own, but I believe God has created us to be social creatures. Yes, we need times to just be alone and reflect or recharge, but you can't live your entire life like that, I don't think. It's impossible, especially in a place like China. That fact hits especially hard when you're walking through the mountains for crying out loud and people are still following you or staring at you. Most of the people are really friendly, though, much more so here than in the cities. They all smile back at you -- they have beautiful smiles -- and will even reply when you say "Nihao". The terrain, as I have hinted, is sometimes treacherous, and the passage from the Bible I quoted at the top of this entry quickly became our theme. It was always amazing to just look around at the scenery, because it would sometimes change. At one point we were walking through these enormous, volcanic-looking black rocks in this reddish-looking sand, and I could've sworn we were on Mars instead of earth. :) It was stunning! I love being in nature because it just aids my imagination. I am certain God has a highly active imagination. Just look around! One of the coolest things from today was not during the day, but at night. We were in the middle of the gorge in a small village, in a guest house that has a spectacular view of the mountain. No cities. No lights. Just a few other houses scattered here and there, and the guest house itself, all set amid this patchwork of fields stacked on top of each other up the mountainside. So at night most of the lights were out, and anyone who knows me can imagine how delighted I was to be able to see the stars. The funny thing was that the moon was so bright (getting close to the full moon) that a lot of stars weren't visible. The moon was so bright, in fact, that you could probably still hike, but I wouldn't recommend it. ;) And it was so awesome to be away from the sounds of cities and fall asleep to the sound of the river hundreds of meters below.....