04.15.08
Sad.
Goodness. Only just starting and already so much to bubble over. Just spent most of my night counsilling a few youngsters caught in a terrible tradgedy. A group of fresh, good christian teenagers got swept away by a flash flood while on camp last night. I was at the school trying to offer some form of support and encouragement to the youngsters left behind while waiting to hear if any had died. All of 8 but one seems at this point tohave been found dead. One is alive ,but seriously injured. To watch young people stand and pray for families, hug and encourage each other as they did. I felt quite panicked for their sake,but they seemed calm and at peace with whatever the outcome might be. The families too. Hmm………………I feel physically heavy chested for them. I few years ago Iwas on a river trip while still in South Africa and we hit a grade 4 rapid. A rock “jammed” the boat and all that went through my panicked 19 year old mind was to “hug the rock” as the instructor had told. I ended up clambering onto the slippery rock only to end up in the water. I went swimming, no , drowning. I literally ended up down a fall and into a “washing machine”. Round and round i went until I blacked out and awoke a few minutes later supposedly having had mouth to mouth. Just before i went down thefall, one of the instructors, perched onthe cliff threw me a lifeline which i caught,but inmy panic i forgot to roll onto my back and instead faced the gushing river resulting in me having to swollow gallons of water each time i attemted to breathe. i gave up and let go of the rope in order to clear my face for air. In doing so, I plunged down the fall. i remember clearly,giving ME up.I remember saying in those fractions of a second,”Well Lord, its been good” I knew i was dying. i saw Aqua, light ,peace , calm and then nothing. It turns out that it was as a result of how relaxed i was that the current took me to the bottom of the chamber and back again, where one ofthe instructors reached into the water from his Kayak and grabbed me..I was surpirised when I awoke andon a complete high for the rest of the day. I felt as if i had touched His hand. While at the school, looking at the forever changed youth having to process this tragedy, I was reminded again and again of that Hand. He would have taken hold of them. He would have shown them Aqua, given them peace, given them calm. He would have.