Our 17 year old daughter,  Rachel,  is making her final preparations for her trip – Kilimanjaro 2012: climbing poverty mountain. In this series of blogs we wanted to share why we pushed aside our natural parental tendencies of protection to let her climb Africa’s highest mountain. More in this mini-series here.

3. Because we want her to learn to trust God

We wish our children could learn to follow Jesus by coming to church every week and sitting through Sunday school. However important this is, in the end, it only provides the theory. Learning to trust God happens when we put the theory into practice, when we take God at his word and act upon it. That’s where and when faith grows. It’s when we hear God speak and do something about it.

Peter’s greatest leap of faith was when he stepped out of the boat. It was when he heard Jesus speak and acted upon it.

‘“Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus’ Matthew 14:29

It’s the same for us. We need to step outside what is comfortable, to reach beyond our circle of familiarity. It’s beyond these edges that faith grows. And it’s faith that we need as we long to see God’s power and purpose released in our lives.

Six days on the highest mountain in Africa may do more to build, challenge and grow someone’s faith than a lifetime of the ordinary and familiar ever could.