You're listening to a bonus episode of the Daily Article podcast, presented by the Denison

Forum and featuring Dr. Jim Denison.

Hi, this is Jim Denison with Denison Ministries, and this is the Daily Article special edition

for March 20, 2020.

On February 19, Zach Edler and more than a dozen other people set out on a 25-day

adventure of rafting the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. When they left, Bernie Sanders

had a double-digit lead heading into that night's Democratic debate in Las Vegas. Cases of coronavirus

were showing signs of decline in mainland China. On March 14th, when they

pulled their rafts out of the river, a man who worked for a rafting company asked them,

have you been in contact with the outside world? They had not. Except for a few one-way

text messages sent to their families on a satellite phone, they'd not heard anything in

more than three weeks, No cell service or news,

not even a passing word from fellow travelers. Then the man told them what they didn't know.

Coronavirus had exploded in the U.S. and around the world. Italy was under lockdown.

The stock market was plummeting. Professional sports were suspended. Many schools were closed.

Tom Hanks had the virus.

Edler said half of us thought he was joking. It's like here's an old river guide pulling our leg. I mean I've heard some pretty big tails out on the river.

However, as a nurse named Sarah Kouac said, I think the girls believed it right away. He said it in this real ominous way, but then he just

walked away to see about lunch, and we were left nervously joking with ourselves, totally

unsure what was going on. The group packed up their rafts and gear and drove out. 90 minutes

later, they picked up a cell signal, and the texts poured in. Ms. Knox said it was this feeling

of disbelief. It's like,

...