Safe and Secure

God answers prayers. Cathedral-like cliffs tower above me as I supervise four high school boy’s down at the river during this year’s outdoor school session in Zion National Park.  The water is cold, but it does not deter us from washing off the day’s grime from our bodies and experiencing a refreshing sensation to boot. After two hours of splashing and cairn building in the river, we headed back to camp for the next activity with all students safe and accounted for.  

Safety and security followed us the rest of the week, but not as you might think.  I wish I could tell you that all of our students came through unscathed and that our daily prayers for safety were answered to the “T.” The truth is that some students did get hurt...hanging out in the outdoors, hiking, biking, sliding on the dunes, etc., can be dangerous at times.  We do take risks with our students and ourselves every day at Holbrook Indian School.  They are calculated, but they are risks just the same. 

God tells us in the Bible that, “Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap. As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.” (Ecclesiastes 11:4-5 NIV).

At HIS we are blessed with the resources to give our students the opportunity to go to new and beautiful places such as Zion.  We are also blessed with a creator that takes care of us.

So now why do I feel that God answered our prayers even though some of our students sustained injuries and had to visit the ER?  Here’s why: they were all cleared with no restrictions other than what their level of pain would allow.  Bumps and bruises...could have been much worse.

Courtesy of Josef Kissinger