CRU Leadership Team - Weekend of Miracles on the French Broad River

CRU High School Leadership Team at on of our French Broad River Campsite Locations

     During the early Spring weekend of March 18, 19, and 20, the leadership team of CRU High School Atlanta-Central participated in an in-depth experiential education course in listening to God, experiencing His love, and seeing answers to prayer.

     The French Broad served as the classroom for us to wrap the 4 SPIRITUAL LAWS in real-time observations and experiences which might clearly explain these concepts to others upon our return home.  We had a great start thanks to Rory Rigdon at Asheville's Trinity Baptist Church for providing the vehicle and Matt Fuller of New City Christian School for driving the shuttle for the drivers.  After a roughly one hour wait while we set shuttle at Asheville's Westfeldt Park, we launched our canoes and the lessons started almost as soon as we headed downstream. The bridges over the river, the cool weather, and other things we noticed reminded us of gravity, psychrometric factors, and other unavoidable aspects of our world, and that the Creator God who made the physical world with these physical laws also made the spiritual world which likewise is controlled by unchangeable spiritual laws.

     God's love for us was demonstrated time and again by the unnecessary and yet unavoidable beauty surrounding us.  We saw this in the blue skies and thick contrasting clouds, the colorful birds, particularly the mallards, wood ducks, hawks, meadow larks, and finches, not to mention some of the most colorful sunsets you can imagine.  We also experienced His love this weekend in the more unusual happenings that several of us recognized as miracles.  One of these was the total inaccuracy of the weather forecast.  You may think it not unusual at all for the weatherman to be wrong but we had bright days and not a drop of rain every day on the river while, at the same time, the weather radar showed pouring rain in our location.  We and many of our friends back home had been asking Jesus for relief from the constant 60% - 90% chance of rain forecast for all day Saturday and Sunday.  The miracle came in the fact that while it did rain almost constantly, there was an unexplained warm air layer which settled over our route, causing the falling rain to evaporate before reaching us on the river.  God's timing (or His sense of humor) was further demonstrated in the rain storm that finally did open up on us within minutes after getting the van loaded and on the road.

     Our universal imperfection (Romans 3:23) was taught by our missed paddle strokes and frequent run-ins with overhanging limbs and spider webs. Our inability to reach God through any efforts of our own, if we ever had any doubt about it, was clearly demonstrated by the width of the aptly named French BROAD River. Jared talked of the uselessness of an attempt to swim across the ocean but several of us saw the same truth had any of us attempted to jump across the river without getting soaked (Romans 6:23).

Many of the strainers we had to negotiate allowed only one way of safe passage.

     The Lord seemed to reach out to us around every turn to dispel the lie that there could be many different ways to Heaven (John 14:6).  Although the river was really, really wide, the many strainers (trees, limbs, and other debris washed into the river) often ran shore to shore leaving only a tiny opening through which it was safe to pass.  We couldn't help but think of Matthew's words each time we had to negotiate these narrow passages, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matthew 7:13,14)
     Even with God's miraculous protection from the rainy weather, three of our group managed to exit their canoes mid-stream for a closer look at the many fish in the river.  Normally a reason for kidding and laughter; the cold water, steady breezes, and overcast skies combined with having all their clothes and sleeping bags soaked turned this into a very real threat of hypothermia.  Our prayers for support and relief for the wet paddlers were answered in short order almost as soon as we reached our next campsite. As we unloaded our gear and started setting up camp, we saw a horse and rider approaching.  She turned out to be Kelly Rhodes, owner of Rhodes Ranch where we were camping.  Hospitality hardly begins to explain the way she greeted us.  In addition to showing her pleasure at our use of her property, when she heard of our wet river rats and their soaked sleeping bags, she showed no hesitation in offering the use of her large dryer, easily capable of drying the wet sleeping bags and clothes.  It wasn't much later that Steve, her husband, showed up with his pickup loaded with firewood for our fire and ready to take the wet items up to be cleaned and dried thoroughly.  Needless to say, all slept well that night at Rhodes Ranch with a clearer understanding of how Jesus knows our needs and hears our prayers.  

      

Mr. Steve Rhodes, another of our "answers to prayer" with the three "fish counters."

Campfire time was great for warming, thoughtful discussions, and learning.

     I almost broke out in singing the old campfire favorite, "It only takes a spark..." as we watched the tender catch fire and quickly spread to bring light and warmth to all of us gathered around.  This clear demonstration of the exponential spread of the knowledge of the gospel message as each believer shares with two or more seekers reinforced our call to "go and make disciples of all nations." (Matthew 28:19)  One of our swimmers, Nathanael, was quick to point out his deepened understanding of the importance of the light and heat of the fire as opposed to dark and cold of night and how this reveals the supreme importance of having the "Light of the World" in our lives.
   
     God's blessings continued to flow out to us as we headed toward our final take-out on Sunday.  This was to be our longest day of paddling distance wise and rightfully should have been the longest in time also.  Our prayers that morning had been for safe paddling, continued dry weather, and endurance to make the distance without blisters, exhaustion, or late finish.  As usual, He had ways of giving us what we needed in a completely different way from what we thought.  We found ourselves speeding down the river at almost twice the pace of the earlier days, arriving at our destination hours earlier than expected.  The reason for this was the rain, which was not falling on us, had instead fallen upstream, swelling the streams flowing into the river, which in turn pushed us on downstream at record pace.

Some were obviously joyful upon reaching our final take-out at Westfeldt Park in Asheville.

Some of the CRU Team gathered for a shot before heading home.