This story began 27 years ago.

Some of our friends from church organized a rafting trip to Ohiopyle, Pa. We were going to take a ride down the Youghioheny River and navigate some Class III and IV rapids!

“Let’s do this!” said the naive 23 year old me.

My sister-in-law nervously asked me if I was afraid. “Heck no! This is going to be great!” I boldly told her.

Then came the release forms to sign!

Wait! What? There was danger involved?

Then I became a little nervous.

We listened to all the safety instructions, put on our life vests, carried our raft to the river and began our 6 hour voyage.

In our raft, we had my husband, my brother-in-law, my scared sister-in-law and myself. We sat on the edge of the raft, like we were instructed, and started paddling down the river.

The first few minutes of the trip, we traveled through some beautiful and calm water with no white water in sight. Then….we bumped into a rock that was hiding under the water. And next thing I know, I was catapulted out of the raft!

Mike was able to grab my vest, hoist me back in and plop me back to my spot.

Phew!

We continued on our adventure. At this point, I was a little more nervous and my sister-in-law was terrified! But there was no turning back!

We enjoyed a few more minutes of beautiful, calm water before we heard the thundering roar of white water!

Okay, I am exaggerating a little. It wasn’t a roar. It wasn’t even thundering. Honestly, I don’t think the water was making any sound at all at this point. But the water WAS moving a LITTLE faster when we hit another stupid rock and I flew out of that dang raft again!

And again, Mike reached down and grabbed my vest, hoisted me out of the raging river and plopped me back to my spot on the edge of the raft.

Yes, dear sister-in-law, now I was scared!

Especially when I heard the for real sound of white water!

I tried to remember what the instructers told us to do but all I could remember was what they told us not to do. And that was to not sit on the bottom of the raft! Which is exactly what my sister-in-law and I did!

Th next 5 hours and 45 minutes of this trip were spent in the bottom of the raft praying to Jesus that we would not die!

He heard our prayers and we made it off the river. But we both swore that we would never do that again!

I am older and braver now and decided to try white water rafting again. This time it was Mike, Emma and I on the trip. And they were only class I and II rapids.

It was fun and I didn’t die.

Thank you Jesus!