There it was the most picturesque water I had ever seen. A turquoise blue and with white pristine waves crashing into the finest grains of sand. All around me was paradise and I wasn’t enjoying it. I kept telling myself what on earth am I going to do. I had finally left the lunch hut to take a deep breath and talk to God. My uncle came out and said something along the lines, “It is going to be okay! Enjoy it.” But I kept thinking I am responsible for this group of people. I’m the only one that can translate and we have NO way to get back to the main island unless we return back on a half working boat.
It all started with a supposedly 2 hour tour across the Pacific waters from one Galapagos island to the next. We had just finished a couple days of kids camp with the local church. It was a success even though our water balloon volleyball didn’t last long on lava rock. Our group thought this little boat trip would be a relaxing tour of the islands.
Little did we know how far off from that picture we were. It was already drizzling as we got on the boat. But that was no problem. We had extra gas for the return trip. It was only two hours I kept telling myself. This trip was to try out the new motor that the church from the states had purchased for them. We still had two motors just one was new and other one a bit old.
The start of the trip seemed to be going smoothly until my uncle realized that we were taking on water because the old motor was eating up all our gas. The new motor was not suppose to be used in full throttle. My uncle asked me to translate many times but boat lingo was not in my vocabulary. Thankfully my uncle was a skilled fisherman and without even knowing the language did he best to manage take over the motor situation without culturally offending the captain. The pastor from the States was shoving out water that kept creeping in. Myself and the pastor’s daughter weren’t sure what we should do.
The rain was coming down heaver. Not like a storm, but annoyingly miserable. It was foggy enough that it was hard to see land. At the worse of the trip I saw small parts of land that were looked like large fingers sticking out of the water. They were made of rock and for certain did not have a shore to land on. I thought we called for help on the radio, but from the looks of it no one was coming to help us maybe we were closer to our destination, but even so we were running out of gas. My uncle had to move the gas tube from the motors from one reserve gas container to the next.
When we finally saw land and the sun came out it seemed like miles away. I even crawled into the bow of the boat hoping for rest and prayers or so kind of direction. The smell of gasoline was going to make me vomit like the poor pastor was doing over the side. What should have been a photo moment of dolphins swimming next to our boat only gave me a slight smile, but then back to worry. I just wanted to reach land so badly. I was just a college student at the time. I was suppose to be translating for the pastor, an elder from the church, and my uncle. Nothing in college or life had prepared me for this unlikely adventure.
When we finally reach the bay the tide was out so we knew there was only one path to get to the docks. Another sailor nearby, a foreigner on vacation, pointed for us the direction. Pointing the direction wasn’t enough for our captain. We all knew one wrong turn we would run aground or hit rocks which would damage the boat. Finally another foreigner got into his little dingy and guided us the along the narrow path to port.
The narrow path takes me back to scripture where Jesus says Matthew 7:13-14 ”Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” There are always Christians that can point in the right direction, but that could lead a new believer aground or hit rocky places. As believers we need to get in our boats and actually lead the lost, guiding them during their journey. How many of us like to go an adventure alone? Not many of us! We usually like a guide that has done the path before to show us the way. It is nice to have a person that can encourage us when we can’t see the next step. As Christ followers we need to show people the way by walking with them. Jesus walked and talked with his disciples. He didn’t just tell them the directions one day and let them do it on their own. Jesus showed them for 3 years before he sent his disciples off to lead others. Thankfully we had a guide in the small boat that took our bigger boat to shore.
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