Prayer—and safety—in the wilderness
It was the summer opportunity of a lifetime: eight weeks hiking and backpacking across the American West in wilderness regions ranging from deserts to mountains. I would be one of two counselors along with a trip leader guiding twenty teens. We would sleep outside every night, cook our own food, and travel together in a large school bus.
During my interview for this job, the camp directors had voiced a concern. Since I was a Christian Scientist, they wanted to know how I would deal with a camper’s illness or injury. I assured them that I’d readily administer first aid and, if needed, accompany a camper to a hospital. In addition, I told them that my first response in any situation would be to calm the fear. My answers satisfied them, and I was hired.
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On our first backpacking trip, the trip leader and my fellow counselor had a similar concern: What if I were injured or became ill on the trip? In remote wilderness areas, there would be no emergency communication or transportation. I answered that I would pray to the best of my ability and, if we were near a phone, contact a Christian Science practitioner for treatment through prayer. Then they asked me a harder question: What would I want them to do if I fell and became unconscious?
God’s spiritual assurance of safety and protection stayed with me that whole summer.
I could appreciate their concern. I said that they should do whatever felt most comfortable to them at the time. This settled things for them. But as I lay awake under the stars that night, I felt unsettled about my reply. As I listened to God for a better answer, it came to me in words from a hymn I’d sung in Christian Science Sunday School:
Father, we Thy loving children
Lift our hearts in joy today,
Knowing well that Thou wilt keep us
Ever in Thy blessed way. . . .
In Thy Spirit living, moving,
We shall neither faint nor fall.
(Elizabeth C. Adams, Christian Science Hymnal, No. 58)
What a perfect promise, directly from God! Through this angel message, God was assuring me that I would not fall or become unconscious. This was my complete answer, just between God and me. In awe, I fell asleep, feeling so safe and close to my divine Father-Mother.
This spiritual assurance of safety and protection stayed with me that whole summer. And in several instances, it was evident that it extended to others, as well.
During our last night in the canyon, a sudden rainstorm caused flash flooding. Our sleeping bags got soaked, but since we’d camped well above the riverbed, no one was endangered and no gear was washed away. In the morning, we hiked out barefoot through the previously dry riverbed—now knee-deep in water—grateful for the safety we’d experienced.
Our most challenging climb of the trip was a glacier-topped mountain over fourteen thousand feet high. After a day of snow-climbing instruction, we all successfully summited the mountain, roped together in teams, with crampons on our feet and ice axes in our hands. There were no problems on this demanding, high-altitude hike, and though I wasn’t the most athletic or experienced, I was able to summit with the first rope team. It was both a personal victory and a collective one.
That whole summer, I experienced no sickness or injury. In the few instances when I accompanied a camper to the hospital, their needs were met simply and readily. On only one day was a camper unable to participate due to injury. Of the many groups on trips that summer, our group had the least number of injuries.
The protection we experienced wasn’t a coincidence, but rather a natural outcome of my growing trust and confidence in God.
This protection wasn’t a coincidence, but rather a natural outcome of my growing trust and confidence in God and my quiet, prayerful embrace of those around me. That summer, I’d started studying the weekly Bible Lesson found in the Christian Science Quarterly. Through this focused spiritual study, I felt close to God and completely supported during our adventure—and this was naturally a blessing to others as well. Reading this Lesson early every morning neither burdened me nor imposed on others. The paperback Bible and its companion book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, tucked into my backpack on long hikes never felt too heavy.
That summer, I learned I could trust God in all situations and saw how my individual spiritual standpoint could bless those around me, even without words.