Entry 26: Respect The Corners

Published on 30 January 2024 at 13:48

Respect The Corners

     Another day, another blog post-life update. I am currently back in Hawaii at the YWAM campus serving with a ministry called Respect The Corners (RTC). I have been blessed to take part in this ministry with 3 of the 8 people I went to Nepal with during my Discipleship Training School in 2022-2023. They are the ones in the picture below! RTC uses CrossFit exercise as an avenue to reach the hardest nations on earth and bring them the gospel. A CrossFit license (which I am going to receive from this 3 month program) is one of the most recognized certifications in the world so by having it, a coach can enter countries that a regular missionary could not. RTC also uses physical strength for God's glory by trekking to the hardest and darkest places on earth that do not have Bibles. There are many villages and people groups that have never received the gospel just because it is too difficult for missionaries to get to them. RTC has made it their mission to reach the unreached no matter how physically difficult it may be. RTC is known for their incredibly difficult treks to unreached people groups, so when RTC members would return to Hawaii after trekking, the locals and YWAMers would ask "how difficult is trekking?". Because of this question the leaders of RTC put together an event for all who wanted to get a small taste of the difficulty of trekking and called it the Uphill Battle.

Me, Devin, Micah, and Naomi after completing the "Uphill Battle" test run.

Uphill Battle

     The Uphill Battle is a CrossFit style event that is hosted by RTC on the YWAM Kona campus yearly. It is going to take place on February 10th and will have more than 350 contestants. Some contestants are YWAMers, some are Big Island Natives, some are from the other islands of Hawaii, and some are even coming from the mainland for this event. The overall goal of the Uphill Battle is to bring people together to accomplish something hard and hopefully inspire them to trek Bibles to places that do not have them. This is the 9th year of Uphill Battle and because of the impact it has had on the community of Kona and people, for the first time there will be a trekking team sent that consists of only Big Island locals. They will be going to the Himalayas and trekking Bibles to places that have never heard the gospel. 

     About two or three years ago the leaders of RTC and Uphill Battle wanted to change up the challenge of the event. They took away a lot of the technical-CrossFit-style movements and replaced them with simple movements for a longer duration. Instead of doing pull-ups and hang-cleans it now consists of things like running, box step-ups, and trail rucks with a weighted vest to give the exercise more of a trekking feel. The final aspect they changed was making it a partner workout because you really are never trekking alone. Since my friends and I are apart of RTC getting our license and leading right now we got to do the test run of the Uphill Battle. It took us just about two hours to finish and was pretty hard but super fun. Then a week later the leaders of RTC asked us to test it again but this time it was going to be even harder, longer, and now in the Hawaiian midday heat starting at 1pm. With the added exercises and crazy heat it took us about two hours and forty minutes. This version of the Uphill Battle was brutal but once again so rewarding to finish. Due to the large amount of contestants we had to test out different versions of the event to find what would best work. The goal is to start early in the morning but even if we do we can only put about sixty people per heat, so that would mean some would definitely have to compete in the heat of the day like my friends and I did. Overall I am so excited to help out with the Uphill Battle on the 10th. It would be amazing to have prayer that God would encounter people before, during, and after the race and that people's hearts would be gripped for reaching the unreached. Also pray for salvations on the day of the Uphill Battle. 

Different Spheres

     As I am training to receive my CrossFit License and learn how to be a coach, I am also getting to shadow classes daily that take place on the YWAM campus. There are many different classes that RTC host throughout the day like a mens class, women's class, leadership track class, discipleship training school class, pregnant moms class, and others. The leadership track class is people who are here training this quarter to lead an outreach team to the nations in the following quarter. It is so fun to watch the growth of these soon to be leaders and how doing something like working out can bring up so much spiritually. Some may think how is working out preparing someone to be a leader? Well, the workouts we write up for these students are usually really hard and really long. The workouts build character, integrity, physical endurance, mental tenacity, and the ability to push through even when your mind and flesh are ready to give up. Every time we are done working out with the leadership track we open up a time for people to be vulnerable and say what they were feeling during the workout or to encourage someone who was highlighted to them during the workout. This is when many previous walls of fear or passivity are knocked down and people say what's truly on their hearts. Many times people are crying after the workout because the difficulty brought something spiritual to the surface. Other times people will talk for five minutes just encouraging someone who was saying verses or working hard during the workout. Every time it is different but every time it is beautiful. It has really opened my eyes to the power of exercising with the body of Christ and has showed me another way we can build one another up.

     The Discipleship Training School (DTS) class is the same one I was in when I was doing my DTS back in 2022. (The DTS is a prerequisite to all other YWAM schools/ministries and a portion of the time in DTS is involved with the CrossFit, RTC ministry that I am currently apart of). This class is extremely fun as well because like the leadership track class it brings up things that may have been buried in the passivity of ones comfort zone. RTC helps students break out of their comfort zones by doing hard things and breaking off performance based faith. During the DTS class the leaders love to emphasize purity and break off the lies that are surrounding so much of the fitness world. Like the lies that say every guy needs six pack abs and every girl needs a perfect butt. In RTC they do not care what your physical abilities are or what you look like. They just want to help each student steward their bodies so that they may glorify God and also do hard things because life is often hard and by pushing through in a workout it can help one push through in other facets of life. Many of the workouts that we write up for the DTS consist of something that may look easy or short but is actually extremely hard and humbling. I believe it is so important that we chose to do hard things in life and if able we chose to do things that humble us. When we do voluntarily chose suffering, discomfort, and humility it grows a muscle of resilience and enlists a greater reliance on the LORD. I had this revelation after a difficult workout back when I was in my DTS working out with Respect The Corners and in response to the revelation I wrote this.

The Light In My Cave

Lord I thank you for the reminder of my fragility, for it only reminds me of how much more I need you. The exploration of my mind and heart can be like a walk in a dark cave, but when I call unto the Lord he is my Light. It is my decision how deep and how far I go. God rewards those who will go to the depths of their mind to allow the Lords light to shine even brighter. As I descend deeper and deeper my body becomes weak and my head grows nauseous, but in that weakness I allow God to lead me even more. The Lord is pleased at one who voluntarily journeys into the darkness that is discomfort just for the glory of the Lord to shine. It is in the deepest depths of my cave that I find the nuggets of gold, the gold that is revelations which cause purification through the extraction of my iniquities. Through this extraction it causes me to gaze more extensively on the pure gold that is Jesus Christ. 

     Thank you for reading this life-update of what God has been doing in my life and through RTC. I really hope you enjoyed! I am so grateful to say God has been blessing me with his provision as I have been raising monthly support both in prayer and financially. I am still looking to partner with whoever feels God tugging at their heart and want to support. I am short of my monthly financial goal but God is so faithful and as he clothes the lilies in more splendor than Solomon so will he provide for me. If you would like to receive my newsletter with updates and prayer requests or just want to reach out you can email me at codyhockel7@gmail.com

Blessings and Thank you again!

Verse of The Blog

Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin. As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.

1 Peter 4:1-2

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Comments

Ron
a year ago

Great job Cody Keep me in the loop😄

Shelly Walker
a year ago

wow Cody. Glad to hear the updates.
Praying for you. May God continue to reveal more of Himself as you die to yourself.. He is not the means to our goals. HE is the goal 😊