What is a Ropes course?

Sunday morning we got to attend church at Casa Hogar Douglas it was a really treat because Greg told the story of David and Goliath which tied in nicely with our morning small groups lesson about faith. After service we loaded up on the bus and headed out to a Casa Hogar (Children's Home) named ERJ. We were first going to do a ropes course and then play with the children. During the bus ride out to the site I let my fear get the best of me. All I could think was I just met these people and I have to do a ropes course with them. In my mind all I could picture was a zip line and my big hiney in a harness and I was starting to freak out a little. When we got to ERJ I was relieved to find out that the ropes course was a series of challenges we could choose to participate in or just watch if we didn't feel comfortable doing it. It was a lot of fun and pretty straight forward until we got to the last challenge called the Leap of Faith. Out come the harness and I decided it right then and there I was not going to participate in this challenge. As I sat down and thought about today's study, service, and the fact that is was on Faith. This morning I felt as if I had really showed a lot of faith the last two months leading up to this trip and if there was anyone here on earth I trust with my life it is Juan that being said why was I letting fear win over me now. I jumped up and grabbed the Harness and decided I was in. As I climbed up the the tree Rodo started asking me questions he knew the answers to which I found kind of perplexing at the time, but now realize he was distracting me so I wouldn't be nervous. As I climbed past Rodo and began to climb on the platform to jump I made a huge mistake and looked down....it was a long way to the ground. I kind of froze and wondered if I was going to be able to pull this off. Then I thought that the fastest, safest way down would be to jump with Juan at the other end of the rope. If I crawled back down the tree it was possible I would figure out a way to hurt myself, so I jumped! It was truly a defining moment and though I let my fear get the best of me and missed the trapeze I still jumped. That in itself was a lesson because even though I missed my mark I still made it down safe!
After that we had some special time with the children I got to play with a little 8 year old girl named Luisa. I painted her nails, we skipped and played on a tire swing. It never cease to amaze me how these children don't necessarily want material things they just want someone to spend time with and pay them a little attention.