Jody and I had a great day planned on Wednesday of our Girls Mountain Getaway. One of those events included white water rafting down the Rio Grande outside of Taos. Unfortunately, the river was so low due to the drought, that there wasn’t much “white water” to be found. Infact, when Waylon and I went in 2016, the water was much higher. An old mining bridge, that you would regularly raft under, was so close to the water we all had to actually lay down inside the raft, just to be able to get under it.
Well, not this time! Now, there was so much clearance that we all got to sit upright, and the tallest one cleared the bridge by three feet. I was sad that Jody did not get to experience rapids stronger than class 2, but the day turned out to be more impactful on us than any rapids could have been.
Jody shared some of her thoughts about this adventure in part 2. We were assigned to a raft with a man and a young boy, around the age of 6 years old. We had a guide named Hanko and he would occasionally have us do a paddle high five with a shout of “coconut” . ... the raft’s nickname. Jody and I giggled the first time that Hanko told us the name of the raft, because I am deathly allergic to Coconut.
I made a comment that even though I had been healed of a mast cell disease, I was likely still allergic to coconut. The gentleman in our boat said, “What did you say?” I told him I had a form of a mast cell disease, and had been healed of it, but I was not sure if I still had my food allergy to coconut. (If you would like to know a little more about mastocytosis you can check it out by clicking here.)
He was shocked because his wife, niece, sister in law (all in the raft behind us), nephew (in the boat with us) and father in law, have a type of mast cell disease. I was just as taken back, because until this day I had only met one other person with a mast cell disease. God has such a sense of humor! He had dropped a family of five, who had suffered with mast cell disease, into rafts on the same river, alongside ME, who has great faith to see people be healed from ANYTHING!!
He began to ask me questions, and wanted me to share with his family, when our rafts got close, what I had experienced. He even yelled out to them that I had been diagnosed with mastocytosis, and had been healed of it. You could visibly see hope beginning to arise within his soul.
When the raft got closer, his sister in law, Summer began to ask me questions. Questions like…”So, you have been healed, but what do your flare ups look like? What medications are you on, and how often? How often do you get seen by a doctor, and who?” I, with overwhelming joy, began to answer each of her questions, praying that Jesus would send a rhema word, and inbirth faith inside each of their hearts like He had done for me. I answered over and over that I went from 13 medications a day (several she has to take daily) to just a simple zyrtec.
I shared with her that I had had absolutely no flare ups since the day Jim prayed for me, which was 1 year and 2 days from this moment. It took several miles down the river for her to realize that when I said I was healed, I meant no flare ups, no symptoms, no more doctor’s visits, no more emergency medical packs and no more meds!!
In the midst of all this, there were times of silence, and I would pray in the Spirit, asking for opportunities to partner with Jesus to bring Heaven into the earth realm!! I also knew Jody was silent, because she was interceding for this family, while lifting me up as I was able to speak truth into their situations, rather than them just focusing on the facts of this horrible, life controlling, deadly disease.
About 20 minutes into this divine connection, a butterfly flew up to me and landed directly on my hand while I was paddling. It then moved over to Jody, and came back and rested itself for quite some time on my forearm. I began to ask Holy Spirit what are You trying to show me, because this is definitely a random place for a butterfly to be.
He began to speak to me that just like this butterfly went through a massive transformation, I am being transformed, and He is going to use me in partnership with Him to transform others. He said “Gretchen, I trust you with My creation. You are gentle. I am here to transform everything...butterflies, things from brown to green, seeds to plants, food to energy,... and you. It is not hard. It just happens. It is My Kingdom in manifestation.” What a beautiful gift and rhema word He gave me in the middle of many miles of conversation about how He wants to heal and does heal. How He loves us so intently.
When we got to our destination, I got the great honor of visiting with Summer and her mother a little bit about my journey. Thinking about her mother...how devastating to a mother’s heart it is for your husband, two daughters, and two grandchildren to have to live this life of pain and uncertainty. I was so privileged that Summer allowed Jody and me to pray for her to be healed, proclaiming that she, and the rest of the family does not have to settle for this way of life. We exchanged numbers and took a picture together to document the divine connection Jesus set up for us that day!!
I’m pretty sure the enemy was pretty dang ticked off that there were so many seeds that were planted that day in the hearts of this family, about how the Kingdom wants to come and manifest heaven in their bodies. Jody and I were on such a spiritual high, as we were most of this trip.
We stopped when we got back to Taos, and I got a banana snow cone. It smelled a little off, but with the smell of sunscreen, sweat and the outside in my nose, I ignored it and took a really big bite! Wow, that was not banana! It was sweet and a bit too familiar, but I couldn’t place it. I went to the window, and asked the lady if this had coconut in it by chance. She assured me it didn't, and even checked the ingredients.
I went to Jody and said, “I know you hate banana, but can you taste this for me?” She took a bite and said, “Gretch, this is pina colada!! Do not eat it!!” The lady realized her granddaughter had switched the containers. She felt bad, but we both don’t think she realized the potential issues as to what just happened. Thankfully I was protected and did not have anaphylaxis with that bite. I retrieved a fantastic smelling banana snow cone and with the top to the camaro down we went on our way singing, celebrating and praising our Jesus for a magnificent time of being used by Him!!
#girlsmountaingetaway
Written by Gretchen Cannon
If you would like to ride along with us through the rest of our trip you can click here.