Day 1: Arrive in Arusha, Tanzania

Today marks the beginning of an incredible journey! Everyone has arrived safely at Mount Meru Hotel in Arusha, Tanzania. Similar to Mount Kilimanjaro, which comprises of three volcano cones, Mount Meru is also a dormant volcano and stands at 14,968 ft. Let’s hope our climbers have good weather on Mount Kilimanjaro because on a clear day, you can see Mount Meru from Mount Kilimanjaro which is 43 miles west! Keep an eye on this trip journal! We’ll be posting everyday from now until the end of the trip!!

The group arrives in Arusha tonight and I’m finding myself feeling more and more excited about the trip ahead. I arrived a couple of weeks before everyone so that I could spend time at Papa Deo’s mountain of praise and peace where he grew up. Legho is a small Christian community on the foothills of Kilimanjaro and I had the opportunity to disconnect from the distractions from back home and experience life from an entirely new perspective. I arrived to the village and was told that off the back porch of the house I was staying in had a great view of the mountain, however it was covered by clouds. I waited for over a weeks before I caught a glimpse of the mountain and was astonished by the masterpiece in front of me. During a bible study with Papa Deo that morning he explained to me that sometimes we have to wait for things to be revealed and trust that the Holy Spirit will guide us in the right direction. I have spent so much time thinking and preparing for this hike but now it’s actually happening and I cannot wait to see what it reveals in all of us.

Journal Entry by Jacob Gibbs