Last weekend my team made a trip to Jinja to spend some much needed time of relaxation and rejuvenation. What I thought was going to be a restful weekend turned into the most terrifying experience of my life.
I white water rafted the Nile River.
A few of my teammates had been planning to raft since we first decided to go to Jinja. At first I had no intention of rafting. I was excited for a nice weekend to hang out at our hostel, enjoy some unrestricted wifi, and just recoup from all the transitions we have been experiencing this month so far. Plus I am not usually an active or adventurous person at all, so the thought of white water rafting was seriously unappealing.
Then I started thinking, “Seriously RaeLynn, when else are you going to have a chance to raft the freaking Nile River? You came on the World Race to be stretched in every way, so why not?” So with that, I decided to raft.
I definitely did not realize what I was getting myself into.
First of all, before we even went down our first rapid, I lost my World Race ring. It was totally my bad because I forgot to take it off. We were practicing different scenarios, and while I was being pulled up in the boat it just slipped right off. I wasn’t even mad. I figured if it was going to fall off, why not have it be in the Nile RIver?
Soon after my ring fell off, we reached the first rapid. For those who don’t know anything about rafting, rapids are rated on a scale of intensity (I think). The Nile has rapids up to grade 20, but the highest that rafts are allowed to go on is grade 5.
The first rapid was a grade 5. And it had a waterfall. That we were going to go down. In a raft. On the Nile River.
It was all so surreal.
We went down the first drop just fine. I thought the drop was the rapid and the waterfall, but then we reached the actual waterfall and I quickly realized that we hadn’t even begun. Our raft went down sideways and two of our team members fell out. By some miracle, I stayed in the raft.
It was a terrifying, exhilarating, liberating, and fun experience. I was definitely shaken up, but I was ready for some more rapids. We had quite a bit of just chill rafting time between each rapid. We conquered the next rapid no problem, and all of us stayed in the boat.
Then we hit The Bad Place. There are three different rapids that run parallel to each other. One is a grade 6 that we had to walk around. Then there was a grade 4 and a grade 5 rapid that we could choose between. Some of our team was a little shook up, so we chose to go down the grade 4.
Well, as we were going down the grade 4, the raft hit a wave just right and literally dumped over half of us out of the raft. So while my raft was going down the grade 4 rapid, my body was going down the grade 5. This my friends, was as close to death as I have ever come.
It was the most terrifying experience of my entire life. I went underwater and was basically tumbling around in the waves completely submersed. I definitely ran out of air, but there was no break in the waves for me to catch my breath. When I did finally get a little pocket of air, I tried to take another breath, but I was pounded with another wave. After what felt like 5 minutes, I somehow got to the raft and was pulled in by our guide. Looking back at the video, the whole thing lasted about 17 seconds, but it was the longest and most terrifying 17 seconds of my life.
Also, I almost lost my shorts in the process. They were down around my ankles while I was being pulled into the raft. Luckily I wore spandex under them so there was no show for my teammates and the other rafters. They didn’t come off fully either, so I didn’t have to surrender another possession of mine to the fierce Nile. That was a nice comic relief after the intensity of the rapid.
I was really, really shaken up after that experience. Once I calmed down, I realized that I was a little happy that it happened because a) I didn’t die and b) I now had a great story from the time I rafted the Nile River. But even though I could appreciate the experience, I was not thrilled to still have 2 more hours of rafting after lunch.
I seriously considered stopping after lunch and just not rafting the second part of the day. I couldn’t imagine having to go through another experience like The Bad Place. Thanks in part to my stubbornness, and in huge part to my friend and teammate Hannah telling me that I can do so much more than I think I can, I decided to finish out the day.
There were only two more rapids after lunch. We made it through both of them unscathed. That is until our guide decided that it wasn’t cool that our whole raft had not capsized yet, so he decided to make us go back into our last rapid and he purposely flipped us. So yeah, that happened. It was definitely scary, but not nearly as bad as The Bad Place.
When we finally got back to shore, I could not get out of that raft fast enough. I was so happy to be standing on solid ground again. At first, all I could say was that was the worst experience of my life. I was saying that it was not fun at all and I can definitely see how people say that rafting the Nile once is more than enough.
As I continued to process, however, I realized that it was actually an incredible experience. It taught me so much about myself and the Lord. I learned that I can truly do so much if I just open up and give myself the opportunity. I learned a lot about God’s character by comparing the Nile to Him. He is not only strong, swift, and fierce, He is also calm and tranquil (the calm and tranquil came from the times in-between the rapids. That was actually very fun and relaxing).
I also contemplated what it could have meant that I lost my ring in the River. Before I even completely got the thought out of my mouth, it was abundantly clear that my ring represented fear.
Coming to Uganda, I had so much fear about everything. The people, the food, the transportation, ministry, whether I could actually do the Race. Seriously, I feared just about everything. The Lord began speaking into that right away. Rafting was kind of the culmination of the theme of facing my fears. I did something that physically scared to represent letting go of the fear that has held me back for years.
“For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control”
-2 Timothy 1:7
I am choosing to step away from fear and into the power, love, and self-control that is given to me through Christ Jesus.
What fears are holding you back from experiencing the fullness of all the Lord has for you?
