Faith Like A Mountain Hike

Hello everyone!

Happy New Year! I hope you all celebrated the new year with family and friends around you.

Looking at this next year I am so hopeful and in high anticipation for what is to come, yet right now I feel like I'm in the middle of a hike up a big mountain. Like the start of any mountain hike, you're filled with optimism and enthusiasm, ready for the journey ahead and full of confidence that you will make it to the top no matter the distance. As you begin enjoying yourself, your muscles are feeling good and moving at a swift pace, and you take in the beauty around you with gratitude and awe. Although the end is far from sight, your mindset is still strong, just a step at a time.

I find on every hike I hit a point where my mindset shifts from blissful and optimistic to doubtful and surrendering. Your muscles ache, the trail seems to be unending, and you revert to your 5-year-old self on a road trip consistently asking "Are we there yet?" and "How much further?" It's at this point when I ask myself 'Is it really worth it? Will the view be that great? I've seen mountains before so why am I doing this?'

What I forget to account for at this point in the journey is that with each step, I'm way closer to the top than I had been at any point before. That the end is ever closer, and although maybe my feelings have changed the beauty at the top is still waiting for me. If I took a second to re-align my perspective I would feel that regained confidence and optimism, just taking it a step at a time.

I feel like I'm in the middle of this hike right now. As many of you know, over last year I felt God leading me to move to Chilliwack BC and join staff at Hungry For Life (HFL) to align my passion for missions, travel, helping others and administration work. I was hired as Executive Administrator and moved to Chilliwack in November 2023. So many pieces to this journey felt like the bottom of the hike, easy, simple, straightforward. I found ridiculously cheap housing with a friend, living in a carriage house suite on a farm just outside of town neighbouring a nature reserve. I now only live a 15-minute drive from my boyfriend Caleb, after 10 months of our relationship being long distance. I found an incredible church with a connected young adults groups and youth group that I will begin serving in soon. I have tons of friends and social gatherings here and blessed to work and do life alongside some incredible people. Bottom of the hill type of blessings.

Then there's the middle of the hike situations; in November I was in a car accident resulting in my car needing to be towed and repaired. Because of insurance red tape and delays in the system, I'm still waiting for my insurance to make a decision about the $15,000 worth of repairs needed or if they will write it off leaving me with a car loan still to cover. A situation that feels frustrating, drawn out and me asking 'Are we there yet, and how much further?'

HFL commits to the 100% model, ensuring 100% of donations for projects go directly there, leaving operational costs and staff salaries to be raised separately. I love this model because it gives full transparency for donors to know who and what they are supporting when they give.

As an HFL staff, I look to those around me to partner with me to support my staff salary so that we can enable the 100% model to happen. HFL matches all staff donations by 20% and issues charitable tax receipts each year. I work with HFL to create a goal on what I need to make to cover my living expenses (capped at a local teacher's salary) and that becomes my monthly fundraising goal. Before I begin working I need to ensure I have 75% of my goal raised so that I'm not working with no way to get paid so that ministry in this way can be sustainable. I have felt incredibly blessed by the amount of family, friends and even strangers that have committed to supporting me and I am very proud to say that I am just over 60% to my goal. Raising support feels like the mountain I'm climbing and with every donor who partners, I'm another step of the way.

I would be lying if I said this was an easy blissful journey. It has tested my faith each day, reminding myself what God has called me to, how He has been faithful in the past and that is unchanging, how He is my provider and holds a greater plan. I have felt anxious and frustrated at the timeline, not understanding why God is having me wait, having to curb my own expectations and ideas. With a mountain climb, it takes endurance, it takes aches and pains to develop stronger muscles to push through the incline that is coming against.

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? Matthew 6:26-27

As me and my new roommate have been decorating our house, we came across this picture that is now framed in our living room. It's a reminder to me of who God is, how great He is, that He holds it all in His hands despite what I see in front of me and that He is forever faithful.

As I see this season as a mountain climb I'm reminded of the amount of times I've successfully climbed to the top in the past. Figuratively and literally, as I've reached the peak of those hikes before, I see the beauty of the 360 view of God's creation. I look back at the path and see what I have overcome and know that although it was hard, I did it. God led me on the path to a beautiful place, more than I could have ever imagined. Although this season is trying, I'm thankful for what I've learned, and how God has been my forever comfort and shepherd.

I hope and pray that this analogy I shared will help you gain perspective in whatever part of the journey you are on right now. Whether you're starting at the bottom or standing in the middle, wondering how you will make it to the top, God is with you. He is ever close and our comfort in your time of need.

All that being said, if you would like to become a financial partner with me this year, helping to enable me to do the impactful work that Hungry For Life initiates, please reach out or see the 'partner' tab above. This is the link for online giving directly through the HFL website, just ensure to select my name in the staff selection dropdown.

https://www.hungryforlife.org/donate?tab=staff

As I mentioned earlier, HFL matches 20% of all donations making your contribution go further. Every amount big or small is another step forward in helping me reach my 75% goal to begin working and ultimately the aim to be 100% funded!

You will also receive a charitable tax receipt for 2024!

If you have questions about this please reach out by message or email. (If you are a US donor please contact me for other giving information to ensure a US tax receipt)

Praying you all have a great start to this new year, trusting in the things the Lord has for you.

Thank you again for your support and prayers in this season.

Love always,

Char

This is a song that has really impacted me this season. It's been continually on repeat but the reminder that God has good plans!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgi4Hw6QR8w

This is a look at some hikes I've done around the world; Chilliwack, Jasper, Kununurra Australia, Mount Cooke Australia, Pokhara Nepal,