John- Believe In Jesus And Live!-Part 8- " The Way" Series

John – Believe in Jesus and live

Part 8

“The Way”

A few years ago

I went to Zambia on a mission trip

I have told some of you bits and pieces about our time there

We spent several days in a village in the bush called Chongwe village

And while there we made some lifetime friends

We laughed and cried

And

I can tell you my experience there changed my life forever

I plan over the next however many years God blesses me by allowing me to be a part of this great church

To tell ya’ll more about our time in Africa

But Today

I want to tell you about our Rand R part of the trip

After spending many days in the bush

Sleeping outside on in huts

Stinking because there was not enough water to bath with

We ended that part of our trip and were headed out to regroup

Refresh and unwind

And prepare to come back to the world we knew and our families

Our leaders had booked us a Safari trip to the Kafue National Park

And 2 nights lodging at New Kalaha lodge on itsTsetse lake

The owner of the lodge gave us directions and we headed out on what we thought would be a 3-4 drive to the lodge

Well let me tell you

I don’t know what he drove to make the trip in 4 hours- , maybe a hovercraft

But the road that was the way to the lodge was probably the roughest road I have ever been on

Ya’ll just think our short driveway gets rough sometimes

We could only drive 5-10 miles per hour

Without jarring our teeth loose and everything on the van trying to come unbuckled

After 7-8 hours of traveling on this rough road we were only about half way to the lodge

Well

About then is when the van we were in broke down

I thought I had been feeling the transmission slipping since we had arrived in Zambia

And now here we were in the middle of nowhere

With no idea where we were or how to get to where we needed to go or how far it was

We had two vans

After lots of prayer

We sent the other van on to the lodge in hopes that they could send us help

And

We began walking

Our group consisted of me, Tim our leader, his 15 year old son

And

6 Women ranging from 13 and up

We walked for several hours and looking at a goggle map of the place after we got home

I Suspect we walked somewhere upwards of 12 miles

Hang with me here because this is where this story ties in with today’s lesson

We were hot

Tired

A bit scarred

And after having walked miles though remote wilderness

We came to a place where there were people

I thought at first this would be a good thing

But it turned out to be a bar in the middle of nowhere

Full of men who had been drinking and smoking dope

Which gave them courage

They saw the girls and they quickly began trying to lead us astray

“Where are you going “they asked?

One of the younger women answered “New Kalalia” Do you know how to get there ?

It’s this way one said

Pointing to a faint trail through the brush

Well I tell you the redneck came out in me

I quickly took out my knife and let them clearly see it

And told the women to start walking

I had Tim and Christian pick up a couple of big tree branches and instructed them on how to use them if the need arose

I am still here

So as you can figure out

The story turned out good

The other van had sent help and about 20 minutes later they arrived

And we were carried safely to the lodge

The point of this story and why I wanted to share it with you is

There was a WAY to get to where we were going

But there were people trying to convince us that another way would also get us there

Those other ways would have not ended well for us

You see

There was only one way

And in order to get to our destination we had to continue following the right way

Any other way would only lead to danger and destruction

I know this was a long story

And

I have no doubt that many of you will have your own story about a time when someone or something tried to keep you from the right way

Many times in my life

My old life

I allowed myself to be led down a wrong road

And I hate to say it, but there were times that I was the one trying to lead someone astray