“He replied, ‘Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.’” (Matthew 17:20)
I recently had the opportunity to watch a documentary on Netflix that had been suggested to me by another disciple. It was about a relatively unknown mountaineer, named Nirmal “Nims” Purja, who was attempting to climb the world’s 14 tallest mountains – each over 8,000 meters in elevation – in just seven months. These mountains are Mt. Annapurna, Mt. Dhaulagiri, Mt. Kanchenjunga, Mt. Everest, Mt. Lhotse, Mt. Makalu, Mt. Nanga Parbat, Mt. Gasherbrum I, Mt. Gasherbrum II, Mt. K2, Mt. Broad Peak, Mt. Manaslu, Mt. Cho Oyu, and Mt. Shishapangma.
Previous to this unbelievable attempt, the fastest amount of time anyone had managed to climb these gargantuan peaks was on the outside of seven years (seven years and 310 days to be exact). This fact led many to consider Nims’ remarkable attempt to be impossible. Therefore, he decided to name his campaign Project Possible! In the documentary, when questioned why he would even try doing something as absurd and dangerous as climbing the world’s highest peaks in such a short amount of time, Nims responded quite simply, “I wanted to show the world what a human can do.”
Emanuella braves the chilly waters of baptism!
I was personally taken aback as I watched Nims undertake this unparalleled quest. Often, his ambitions to climb the “next” mountain were met with doubts, fears, and concerns from other climbers. In each case, his unwavering belief in himself, coupled with his rock-hard mental fortitude, overcame. He climbed mountain after mountain; sometimes more than one in a single day. Twice even, he was forced to put his ambitions aside to save other mountaineers, who had succumbed to the harsh environment that exists at the mountain’s unforgiving altitudes (“The Death Zone”) and were in danger of losing their lives. Nims managed to save one of them, but sadly lost another despite giving the climber his own oxygen and almost dying himself. Incredibly, on October 29, 2019, in just six months and six days, Nirmal Purja became the fastest person to ever climb all 14 peaks.
As I considered this powerful documentary, I couldn’t help thinking of Jesus’ words to His disciples: “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.’” Jesus didn’t climb mountains; He moved them. And He didn’t merely attempt to show the world what a human could do; He showed the world what God could do! But more than even that, He showed the world what a human can do with God! Jesus taught that “nothing will be impossible for [us]” as long as we have faith.
Christina is fired up as she is resurrected with Christ!
Nims’ story is an upward call for me. He did not look more physically fit or gifted than any of the other mountaineers. He didn’t possess any special skills or knowledge that the other climbers didn’t have. He didn’t even have the most favourable circumstances. What he did have, though, was an iron will and a self-belief that he would achieve what he had set out to do. In fact, at one point in the documentary, a fellow mountaineer who had been ascending one of the mountains with Nims, tried to quit. He felt that he couldn’t go on, and was urging Nims to turn back as well. Nims replied to the man, “Giving up is not in the blood, sir.” A few hours later, both of them were standing on the 8,091-meter summit of Mt. Annapurna!
I thought to myself, “Wow, if a man who is not a disciple, and who does not have the power of God working in his life, can have that type of mountain-climbing ‘faith’, I need to have a greater mountain-moving faith in what God can accomplish through me – and through us as a church!” Therefore, I would like to put these “impossible” 14 peaks before the church to be accomplished this Summer:
A miracle – Nero and Patrina are now dating!
1) To collectively blow past our $90,000 Special Missions goal, and to reach our faith goal of $100,000
2) To have each disciple in the church lead at least one Bible study with a non-Christian
3) To have each college or university student-disciple achieve at least a 3.0 for this semester
4) To create a NEW Campus Ministry Bible Talk
5) To create a NEW Singles Ministry professional downtown Bible Talk
6) To create a NEW Region in the church (Downtown Region/York Region)
7) For each Bible Talk to have at least one baptism
8) To have no disiples fall-away from the Lord and leave the church
9) To hire at least one Summer Ministry Intern
10) To have at least 100 women in attendance at our Women’s Day event
11) To have at least 10% of our Campus Ministry at the International Campus Leadership Seminar (ICLS)
12) To have at least 10% of our Church membership at the Global Leadership Conference (GLC)
13) To select and enrol two NEW ICCM students
14) For each disciple to be closer to God than ever before (As should be the case when standing atop a mountain!)
To some, these Summer goals may seem impossible. But that could only be the case if we fail to at least possess “faith as small as a mustard seed”. However, through God’s unlimited power, we can not only climb these 14 mountain peaks; we can move them! Let’s move mountains together. For truly, nothing is impossible!
Evan Bartholomew