Over this past year, I have been wanting to do adventure ministry in the area where I live in order to reach local youth and young adults. A few kilometres from my house there is a small mountain that looks like it has good potential to be used for rock climbing and also has large cave inside. I had run into one man, Uncle "A", who works at the temple there who said he was really interested in us developing the area so it can be used for rock climbing. After an unsuccessful attempt to meet with him, we arranged another time to meet. As me and Jeff were coming to the entrance of the temple there, we ran into a neighbour of mine, a tourism official in the local municipal office, who just happened to be there.

He greeted us warmly and asked us what we were doing there. When we stated our purpose, he said he'd love to help and he brought us to look at one of the cliff faces and then took us to meet the local village leader, who was very happy for us to develop the rock face for climbing. When I mentioned to the tourism official that we were supposed to meet with Uncle A, he advised us not to get involved with him; he said that Uncle A was just interested in people giving "gifts" to the temple. I didn't get what he was hinting at and since Uncle A was already expecting us, we went in anyways. He took us in to see the abbot, talked about how complicated the process was to get permission to develop the cliff face and how we would really need his help. It turned out what Uncle A wanted was "gifts" from us to smooth out the process! We now knew what that municipal official was talking about! After we came out, the tourism official said that we didn't need to be worried, that we shouldn't have any problem, just stay clear of Uncle A.

This was a lesson how much we need God's direction in navigating in a culture where corruption is commonplace. But praise God that He is able to lead us regardless of the context we are in; in my case, it seems He sent my neighbor to help just at the right time. For each of us, whether we're in a maze of materialism, a context of corruption or facing heavy persecution, God is fully able to lead us in His paths of righteousness, since He is all-knowing, all-powerful and loves us.