Wow, its getting too close to the end!! Not ready to leave. Yesterday I had a 3 and a half hour math "jam session" with 4 of the high school math teachers. They asked SO many awesome questions, they were so hungry for new ways to approach their trade. I've been sharing with them for 2 weeks, and they just can't get enough!! We've established an awesome relationship and will continue sharing ideas with them long after I leave.
We took a day off today, and went to a remote place called Wild Waters. OK, all I can do is apologize for how woefully inadequate I will be in trying to describe the awesome power God put on display for us today. This oasis of a resort was tucked away in an undisturbed subtropical jungle where the vegetation was so thick we could not see more than a couple feet into it. Within this lush green setting is a very small wooden pier on the side of the Nile River, where we (10 of us), got into a long narrow wooden flat bottomed canoe shaped boat, with one guy in the back with a standard kayak paddle (aluminum shaft, plastic blade), and he singlehandedly paddled this 20 foot long, 3 foot wide boat across a very swiftly running river and expertly brought us right up alongside another very small wooden pier on an island in the middle of the Nile. We then walked along a very long suspended boardwalk that was surrounded by the most beautiful lush green paradise-like place I've ever seen. Then, at the end of this walk, we enter onto a beautiful mahogany hardwood floor that runs throughout a large welcoming covered area with some seating, and this roar that becomes more prominent with each step you take through this covered space. And then, it happens. This covered area opens onto a sprawling outside deck, and off the deck in every direction you can see, is thunderously raging white water in a full surround panoramic set of rapids that are RAGING everywhere you look. The sensation literally stops you in your tracks as you try to take the immense power right in front of you. It overwhelms the senses. All of us just stopped and looked in awe trying to take it all in. I could just go on and on trying to describe the feelings as I was experiencing the vast power of God right there before us!!! Then, after we settled in a little bit, we took a little walk, and took a path that led down a hard-to-negotiate slope, to a small wooden deck platform, and standing on this platform, which was right at river's edge, we find ourselves overlooking THE MOST VIOLENT whitewater display we've ever seen. The sheer volume of water passing by us was unimaginable, and the air was full of a heavy mist that was being formed by the violence of the water crashing over the rapids. There was a very large (half the width of the river) boiling pot that was so turbulent, and swirling, and reversing, and undulating, that should a raft or kayak find itself falling prey to it, I couldn't see a means of escape. I've seen Niagara Falls, and the Grand Canyon, which were both breathtaking in their own right, but I have not stood in such awe of unbridled power in all of my life as what we witnessed today.
There's just no way to follow that, so I'll close for this evening. Thanks again for all thoughts and prayers. Craigg
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