Article November 11, 2002 Issue

In the rapids—but not beyond God's reach

By Donna King Matthiesen

A YEAR AGO last June, a friend offered to take me and my daughters Melissa and Mandy on a whitewater rafting trip on Idaho's Payette River.

At the launch site, the Payette was peaceful and wide. While our guide and oarsman explained the safety rules and the importance of respecting the river, I looked at the huge raft and was glad that I had some experience rafting—I'd done about ten trips on the Arkansas River in Colorado.

The guide explained that the safest place to sit was on the bottom of the raft. But he said that the most fun place to sit was on the edge. He said if we did sit on the edge, we should hold on to the rope at all times. I recalled that when I had rafted in Colorado, I had always sat in the middle and on the low seat close to the bottom of the raft, with people around me. This time, though, I went along with the others and sat on the edge, thinking it would be more fun ... and exciting.