Hello All,
I just want to take a moment to share a quick testimony of how I encountered Jesus in such a beautiful way in my trek up in the Himalayas. I hope you enjoy and get to see a glimpse of God has been changing my heart while on the trip.
On the morning of our trek up the mountain in the Himalayas, I encountered Jesus in a way like never before. That morning, God had been emphasizing the focus of fixing my thoughts on Him and taking every thought captive as well as being transformed by God’s Word. This led me to download and listen to a podcast by Louie Giglio titled, “The Power of a Transformed Mind”. In the podcast, Louie spoke about what it means to have a transformed mind but also spoke of the experience of the journey to Golgotha (the hill in which Jesus got crucified on), highlighting the men who were also going to be crucified along with Jesus.
Towards the end of the podcast, I asked God this question, “What does it mean that God saved me? And why should I be grateful for this?”
Immediately, God gives me the song “You Saved Me” by UPPERROOM (feat. Abbie Gamboa). The first time I listened to the song, I started to feel a stirring within my spirit as I was trekking up the mountain, and so I decided to put the song on repeat.
After about the second or third time, then it hit me. As I’m listening to the lyrics: “I cannot remember what I was doing before I met you/ I’ve been captivated/ by the love that saved me”
As I’m listening to these lyrics, I look over to my right and see Jesus carrying the cross on his back. And it’s in that moment that I realize, that I’m just like the criminals walking up to their deaths. Just like they realized that they deserved death because of their sin and choices, so I deserved death as well. But Jesus was carrying the cross so that I wouldn’t have to. He was paying the price for me so that I didn’t have to die.
Following that, I’m hearing the other part of the lyrics: “Now I will never leave your love/ This is why we thank you/ This is why we thank you”
I was completely wrecked, starting to, as I like to call it, ugly cry, as I’m trekking up a mountain with my squad. God then reminded my heart of the vision he had given me earlier in Nepal, where I was a toddler being buckled up in a booster seat of car by God as He tells me that “We’re going up to the mountain.”
It was in that realization that God had prepared this experience for me! He foresaw it and had made it known to me even though I didn’t understand it.
The Holy Spirit and realization of all of this hit me so hard, there was a point that I literally had to stop walking and just fall to my knees (with my big pack of about 40 lbs on my back) and just cry, saying to Jesus, “Thank you Jesus, thank you for saving me.”
It was such a beautiful tender moment unlike any one I’ve ever experienced before. It was in that time that I learned in my heart, not just in my head, what it meant that Jesus was my savior. And I’m so grateful for that experience!! Thank you Jesus!
I also would like to take a moment to thank all of my sponsors who have donated to either my World Race Donation Page or towards our Himalayan Trek. Like shown above, God has been moving and been teaching me so much! So grateful for all that he’s done and all that He’s been teaching me! Thank you all and I love you and miss y’all!
– Hunter Land
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