The week of the Mt. Fuji climb, I was checking the weather constantly. July is officially the rainy season in Japan and we had a storm front moving in. By the day of, we were fully expecting to make the hike in the pouring rain, but resolved to continue as planned. One last check revealed that by 6 am the rain would let up, but that would be about the time we were supposed to be heading back down! Packing sixteen climbers into two vans, I could tell that a few of them had underestimated the mountain and would not be able to hike in the rain. But they all wanted to try and so we drove out to the base of Mt. Fuji and stopped at a local restaurant to load up on some last minute carbohydrates and change into our hiking gear. Checking the weather once again on my iPhone, it showed that the front was moving faster than expected and would be out of the area before midnight! Seizing our chance we arrived at the 5th station trailhead just as the last raindrops stopped falling and began our ascent of the mountain.

Most reasons to quit occur before you ever even start!

It is much easier to seize the opportunity when it arises if you are already there, prepared and have your eyes on the goal.

Our team was made up of seven men and nine women, all novice climbers who had never attempted Mt. Fuji before. Our youngest member was 14 and our oldest in their 40′s. Most people make the climb starting in the evening and timing the summit so that they can watch the sun rise. It is a very moving experience. Because we started late, after the rain stopped, we only had a few hours left to beat the sun and three of our men wanted to try for it. They succeeded in beating the sunrise by climbing Mt. Fuji in three and a half hours. The rest of us took twice that long! But we got to see the amazing sunrise nonetheless from a little further down the mountainside. Not only was the sunrise breathtaking but all night long the stars were innumerable and the city lights of Tokyo below us stretched on further and further as we climbed higher. The rain had cleared away all of the haze that normally covers the metropolis and left us with a real treat. Another thing we realized was that because of the rain there were far fewer people on the mountain than on a typical weekend during the short climbing season. The next day going down, we passed thousands of climbers starting the trek up!

Things don’t always go according to your expectations, but keep expecting wonderful things.

Of course the climb also had its share of mishaps. Two climbers who were unprepared for the cold had to turn back half-way to avoid hypothermia. One of the young men who raced up the mountain sprained his ankle on the way down. And a group of four took a wrong turn on the return trail and ended up on the other side of the mountain and had to take a very expensive taxi ride back to rejoin the group. But these were small things compared to the beauty and challenge of the mountain itself. The biggest challenge was each person’s battle with themselves, to persevere through pain and exhaustion, wind, cold and lack of oxygen to see how high they could go. And also the teamwork, as each group helped each other through the mishaps, and encouraged one another to press forward to the goal. After we reached the summit, I told fourteen year-old Rebecca that she was an inspiration to me, I kept telling myself, “If you can do it, then I can too!” She replied back without missing a beat, that she was saying the same thing about me!

Your personal struggle can help someone else with theirs.

Now it is a week before we start training for OperationSAFE camps for the trauma children on the Tibetan Plateau. And once again I am intensely checking the “weather”, all those things that are beyond my power to control. Will we find the right place to hold the camps? Will we be able to help the right children? Will the right volunteers come and will they be properly prepared? Will the local authorities cooperate, will local leaders catch the importance of what we are doing? Will all of the funding come in? All of these become reasons why we could quit, even before we begin. But we don’t quit, because we have stepped out in faith. We pray, we prepare, we move into place and expect that our opportunity to be of help will come. This is how we move mountains.

How Can I Help? Please make a donation to help children with trauma in Tibet.

Through partnerships with local ngo’s and volunteers and our volunteer staff we are able to provide a one-week OpSAFE camp for one child for .50 cents. Your donation helps children get the help they need to overcome trauma.