One of the young women leaders got sick, so they asked if I'd like to come on the YM/YW float trip in her place. I was so excited to go! I miss all these kids a ton! It was an eventful trip! A lot happened that you just had to be there to understand, but I'll do my best to explain. First, I felt strongly right from the start that we (Me, Bailey, Madi, Andrew, and Brad) needed to be at the very back. I guess it's the mom in me coming out, but I wanted to make sure everyone was out of the water before we were. We had a ton of kids there, and we had to put the tubes in one at a time, so we had a huge line of kids all along the river. Madi floated away from us really fast. We thought we wouldn't see her again until the end. I started floating ahead of Bailey too, because her and Andrew stopped to help Jeanne get unstuck. I eventually ended up by the shore and grabbed onto a tree to wait for them. Me, Bailey, Andrew, and Brad all managed to hold onto each other's tubes and go down the river together. Part way down, we saw people standing in the middle of the river. When we got there, we realized that Katie Belnap was standing there with her two little boys and a flat double person tube. Madi was with her, but without her tube. We found out that one of the deacons had their tube go flat. Madi gave him her tube, and she got in the 2 man raft with Katie and her kids. The big raft hit a rock or something and went flat. If Madi hadn't been there, Katie would have been all by herself in the middle of the river trying to balance herself, and 2 small kids, and hold on to a big deflated raft. We put Katie and the kids in a tube, and me and Bailey doubled up so Madi could be in the other one. A little ways down, we saw someone stuck by a downed tree laying in the water by the shore. When we got closer, we realized it was Jayden, who is terrified of the water, holding on for dear life. He went down on the same tube with his sister, Joneichea, who was no where to be seen. He said the last time he had seen her, she got swept to the middle of the river and was going down without a tube. Andrew managed to stop all of us in the middle of the river while Brad went to help Jayden. The current was really strong at this part, so we all ended up falling off our tubes, but we held on to them. We weren't going to be able to stay hooked together anymore, so we all jumped on, and started floating down separately. Jayden was now on a tube with Andrew, and Bailey and Madi ended up together. I was still stressed out, because I was worried about what happened to Joneichea. We scanned the water and the shore the rest of the way down, and ended up assuming she caught up with someone and got on their tube with them. When we got to the end of the float, they said Joneichea never made it to the take out spot. We found out that she floated by Katie, but Katie was in a one person tube with her two little boys, so could do nothing to help her. Katie did see her make it to the shore and climb out, so that made us feel a little better. But, she was on the opposite side of the river. When we got out of the water, 3 men (Brad, Bruce, and Dennis), and 4 kids (Bailey, Madi, Andrew, and Jayden) left to find Joneichea. Dennis put his raft in the water a little up from the spot where they flipped their tube. Sure enough, Jonichea had walked back to try to help her brother. She thought they were the last ones of the group, so she started to panic for a second when she realized he wasn't there. She said a prayer and instantly got the feeling that he was safe. She knew we would be out looking for her, so she stayed put. Once Dennis picked her up, he brought her back to the cabin. We were all relieved, but we eventually realized that the others, who were searching for her along the shore had no way of knowing that we had found her. Bailey was starting to stress out a little bit. They all had the feeling that Joneichea was safe, but they thought she might be in a panic over Jayden because she didn't know we were still floating behind them and had helped him. They said a prayer that Joneichea would stay calm, stay where she was, and be comforted that Jayden was okay. We sent a driver down to find them and let them know that everyone was okay. I talked with Joneichea for a long time about it, and then I had Bailey, Madi, and Andrew in my car for the ride home. I thought they were all going to talk about all the things that went wrong on the float. Boy was I wrong! They talked about how much their faith was strengthened by how right everything turned out. They talked about if Madi hadn't given her tube away, then Katie would have been stuck in the river with two small kids all by herself. They talked about it being Joneichea who had gotten flipped off the tube, and not Jayden (because that could have been really bad). They talked about how they prayed that Joneichea would somehow know that Jayden was okay, and she did. They talked about the comfort they felt that everything was going to be alright. What most kids would have deemed a bad experience, was a huge faith building experience for these kids. That's why I love our youth! They are the best, and most adults could learn a thing or two from them. All and all it was a great trip! Most of the kids had no idea any of this was even going on. They all had a great time!
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| Our awesome kids! |
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| Bailey and Madi |
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| We saw two moose! |
