“It was kind of a faith journey,” the 14-year-old boy earnestly said to me. C. was describing what had happened when he had finally put his mountain-bike-learning into practice on the students’ five day wilderness expedition (See earlier post for C.’s story on learning to ride a bike the first time).
“There was a lot of rocks and I kept going off the trail as it got narrower and narrower. I was getting nervous and finally my bike went completely off the trail and I had a big crash. Everyone else had already gone down the steep hill…I was all by myself and I began to cry and felt very scared. I wanted to give up.” C.’s gentle face grew livelier as he continued his story—he was almost unrecognizable as the timid, shy boy he had been three weeks earlier at the beginning of the program.
“The whole group stopped to wait for me at the bottom of the hill and started to encourage me. K. came up and brought me lunch and prayed for me. I decided to try it again. As I began riding, I felt that God was protecting me with a shield that went around my whole body. As I felt this, my inner confidence came back once again and I was able to ride down the hill.”
He paused, collecting his thoughts into English. “Many things have changed inside of me since I have come here, “ he said. “I am not the same person.” He smiled, a warm, contented smile, full of life and light. It was the smile of a person who had confronted his inner fears and come out the other side, an inner-confidence born of struggle and hard choices. I smiled back and patted him on the shoulder. “That, “ I said firmly, “is a great story, C.”
