PROTECTOR OF MY SOUL

Day 6

PROTECTOR OF MY SOUL

This song ended our evening devotions on our day of Adventure. Little did we know as we boarded our mini bus at 6:30 am, later that day, some of us were in danger as our white water rafting boat capsized and dunked us under the water.

The trip began with a two hour drive north from Santo Domingo through the scenic mountains of the Dominican Republic. As we neared our destination, the bus laboured in first gear climbing the steep mountain road leading to Jarabacoa and Rancho Baiguate.  Awaiting us was a delicious buffet style breakfast. After a short video on white water rafting safety instructions we got into our wetsuits, life jackets and helmets. We then had to climb aboard three large trucks, and because I (Klaas) could not wear my glasses, I got on the wrong truck and was separated temporarily from my group.

We drove to the river’s edge and received further instructions as we sat in our rafts on the river bank. Our instructor considered us ready to go – since he only had 2 weeks instruction experience himself – and we were off down the river. It was at times a precarious adventure and after having gone through many of the rapids and much soaking we thought we were safe and near the end, when our instructor said there was one more rapid, it was called “the toilet”. We did not consider it to be very dangerous. However, there happened to be a raft stuck at the top of the rapid leaving little room for us to get past so instead the rushing water pulled us beneath the other raft and dumped us into the river. There we were – wondering when we would surface and be able to regain control. We lost shoes and paddles and were clinging to the nearest rock. The instructor brought the raft to me and then to the others and we safely reboarded having found all the shoes and most of the paddles. Aside from a few bumps and scratches we continued on to our place of landing.

We headed back to the ranch ending the time with a buffet lunch and some reflection on that which had just occurred. At 4:00 we headed back to our compound with some fun singing along the way.  Soon we were there, ate some more, and had our evening devotions, thanking God for his safety and blessing on our day.