Rain, Rain, Go Away!

I sit here in my living room, listening to what once was comforting and now is just an annoyance (for now), pouring rain!  We have had significant rain on and off for the last two weeks!  There has been flooding and loss of life here in Poland.   The waters have receded some from our camp, but there is more rain forecasted.

This past weekend, we had our Pre-Camp Conference at the Hashes house.  With each significant conference or gathering, there is pressure and things that happen to try to throw us off our game.  This year, it was a flash flood at the Hashes.  It was not the raging river flash flood but the Hashes live at the bottom of a hill, below a farmer's field.  When the rain hit, the water came rushing down and overwhelmed the water ditch and so started to flow into the yard and the basement of the house.  The water was coming up from the ground because it is so saturated!   Just mere hours from the first of 50 Polish leaders coming, and we are outside trying to keep the water from coming into the house.  After a few phone calls from dear friends, the fire department came to give us sand bags.  Well, sand and bags.  So, Laura and I had to fill the bags and haul them over to the places where we needed them (Dan is in the States with his mom and Jacob was in Katowice doing a kid's outreach).  The whole time we were laughing, grunting and wishing we had a camera to show you all the picture of our sandbagging techniques.  The first group came only 1 1/2 hours after this extra activity!

God was good though!  It rained on and off all weekend, but no more flash floods!  The time with these leaders was sweet!  This year's camp theme is "Redeem".  It got me thinking that even though the weekend could have been a disaster, God, in a way, redeemed it for His Glory!  The leaders were challenged to not only prepare for the camps but to look inside and see where God wants to redeem even more in their hearts!  We did not have to break it up for flood control either!

I am still tired from the weekend.  It did not stop on Saturday!  Sunday was full too!

Now, on Thursday, I will go to Krakow to welcome a group from Colorado Christian University's Youth Ministries department for a vision trip which includes a mini-English camp at a local Jr. High school.

Summer has started ALREADY!!!  Whew!  I love Camp Season!