Antarctica, Part 3 – God’s Sign

You may recall when I traveled to the Galapagos Islands in February that God gave me the sign of the rainbow to assure me that I would be able to participate physically in the excursions into the wildlife refuges. Two weeks before I left for Antarctica I asked, “God, what sign are you going to give me this time? You know, you don’t have to wait until I get there; you can give me a sign now.” God chose to wait until I got there, and what a sign He gave me! We called it “National Geographic Weather.” Usually the weather is overcast and cloudy in Antarctica. On our first day of excursions, the weather was sunny without a cloud in the sky! We took a zodiac boat cruise in the morning and landed on the continent itself in the afternoon. And the weather was like that most of the three full days we were there, exploring the continent! All the guides kept talking about it, saying things like, “Wow, the weather is not usually like this”, “On our last cruise we had cloudy weather the whole time,” and “This is very unusual weather for Antarctica!” But I knew Got had sent the weather for me! He is a personal God! One morning the weather was overcast and I got to experience getting splashed by freezing Antarctic waters in the zodiac boat. I can now vouch for the fact that the three layers of clothing we wore really did keep us warm and dry!

               At first I did not tell anyone about my medical history because you can’t tell by looking at me that there is anything wrong. However, I did tell one of the guides near the end of the cruise. He saw me stumbling in the snow and came to help me walk back to our little campsite. At the end of all the excursions, all passengers and staff met in the meeting room for a recap of our visit to Antarctica. Again the director mentioned the unusually clear weather. After that meeting I told the guide, “God sent this weather for me!” He then remarked that I had gone out on every single excursion to the continent and on every single zodiac cruise around the bays and harbors. Many of the passengers did not go out after the first day; I give the glory to God!

I should also mention that Al and I came home with the sniffles and a cough. We both went to an urgent care center Sunday, December 2 and were both diagnosed with asthma and bronchitis. I was scheduled for a chemotherapy treatment on Wednesday, December 5. I became concerned that my blood levels would be down too low or this doctor might give me a drug that was incompatible with the chemotherapy drugs. But God did it again! The nurse practitioner knew all about lung cancer because her mother has it too! The medicines she prescribed started working right away and I was able to take my chemo treatment on time Wednesday! In fact, my chemo nurse told me that all blood levels were well within limits for my treatment! Yea, God!

               Pictures show our first day of excursions and they speak for themselves! Note that in the first picture, in the lower right corner, the water is so clear that you can see the basalt and granite cobblestones on the bottom of the ocean. In another picture you can see the zodiac boats and our “campsite”, where we left our life jackets and tote bags while we explored. There’s Al with his sunglasses, shielding his new eyes. Al took the last picture while cruising in the zodiac boat; you can see the boat’s wake on the crystal clear deep blue water.