Oh my goodness. What a day yesterday was. I apologize for not blogging, but you'll understand in a minute.
I was asked to come up to help out with my Presbytery's summer camp yesterday so I went up and spent the day and last night there. Everything was great. We had a great time with the kids and everyone's spirits were up.
So we're eating dinner when a thunderstorm rolls in. A very very very loud thunderstorm. Some of the kids were getting a little upset but for the most part everything was under control. Until the entire room lit up and a crack loud enough to burst eardrums knocked all of us out of our seats. Followed immediately by a true horror movie shrill from one of the younger camper girls. Chaos ensues as the coffee pot in the corner begins to smoke. Yes...the camp coffee pot was struck by lightning...right in the middle of dinner...right in the middle of the mess hall. Somehow we still had power though. STUPID STUPID me (and I must admit I was pretty amused by the whole thing) starts chanting, "Again! Again! Again!" Well.... I got my wish! Not five seconds later another flash, another crack, another horror movie scream, and no more power! And just to seal the deal...one more flash and one more crack. I guess the girl didn't have it in her to scream anymore. Or maybe she passed out. Who knows...we couldn't see a thing. I think this was the most excited I've been in a long time. I found something very very cool about the whole thing.
The kids however...did not. Emergency power kicked on which was the equivalent of a few flood lights over a few of the doors. Kids are crying EVERYWHERE! Luckily we have a great counselor who started singing Peace Like a River. Thank God for that! It's amazing how quickly turning the focus on Christ made all the kids forget about the storm still wreaking havoc outside the windows. In a matter of about thirty seconds all eyes were dry, they were all on their feet, and they were all just singing praises. It kind of reminded me of the disciples and their own storm. When they wake Jesus up from his nap scared for their lives and as he calms the storm he asks them, "Do you peeps still not have any faith? What gives, foo's?" Our kids were the opposite and I'm thankful for that. There's also a lot we can learn from that, I think.
Anyways... GA Power was called and they made sure to put us as a priority seeing as we had fifty some odd kids in the dark. When the storm calmed down we moved the kids to a building with more windows and doors so we could keep them a little bit cooler and in a little bit more light. We played some games with them there and prepared for the worst should the power not be able to be restored quickly. This preparation included getting buckets to fill with pool water to poor in the back of the toilets so we could continue to flush. Wouldn't that have been fun??
Luckily, power was restored in about an hour and a half and we were able to get the kids to bed safely. What an adventure! All the phone lines in the camp were completely fried...hence no wifi and no blogging. Incredibly though... the coffee pot still works! Get that!
The picture is a random snapshot I took while the power was out, but I think it truly captures the little bit of chaos we experienced. One of the other councilors jumped in front of the flash as i snapped the photo and BAM! It turned out pretty cool.
So that's Day 2! Day 3 will follow later tonight.
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