Mt Batulao

Found myself with some free time and I have a lot of studying for a class I will be teaching first week of April as well as an upcoming sermon I need to teach. One of the struggles I find here is having quiet time here so I can study for things like this so I decided to find a hike that I would do and then I would study at the top and wait for the sunset. I found on my map a nice looking hike and my phone told me it was a 35 minute hike which seemed perfect. I took a drive there and was looking for the entrance when I was greeted by a guy who asked me if I was looking for the hike and told me I first needed to register and I needed a guide. At this point I was going to do the hike either way so I signed the papers and he said he'd be my guide and we started. Turns out this was not a 35 minute hike. It was in fact a 3.5 hour hike 10km long and 800m up. Most of the hike was pretty much climbing. This guy made me look slow; he told me later he was 54 years old and I was the one struggling. In my defense thinking it was a quick easy hike I brought over 20lbs of studying materials and a single sparkling water to go the whole way. In the end I didn't get time to study but it was worth the climb. At the top we took a rest and I tried to share the gospel with him. He stopped me short to let me know he knew Jesus and his whole family was Christian. I was able to give him a gospel braislet and explain what it meant and he asked for one for his wife and daughter. Even though I couldn't study it was a well spent afternoon and God had other plans.