"Peace Be Still"

This past weekend my husband and I spent camping with the Pathfinder Club from our Church. For those of you who may not be familiar with Pathfinders, it is an international ministry of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and provides character building activities for young people ages 10-16. This particular Camporee was for all the Pathfinders Clubs from the Adventist churches across the state. The weather reports had gone back and forth ahead of time. Rain vs. no rain. We prayed that the Lord would hold His hand over the camp so that it would be dry. The prospect of a wet and rainy weekend spent in a tent was not enticing.

Friday morning arrived, and with it a sun drenched day. We had optimistic hopes about the weekend. In addition to our high hopes we had continued to pray that the Lord would hold the rain off. After we were packed, we headed to the camp to meet the rest of our group there. The Camp was pitched without incident, and we had a clear, cool, dry night for sleeping.

Sabbath morning dawned as bright and sunny. Again we breathed a prayer of thanks while continuing the prayers that the storms that were projected to arrive that very afternoon would pass us by. The Camp Inspection, Pathfinder Club Parade, Sabbath School, and Church passed without incident. After lunch the wind picked up a bit, but the sun continued to shine for the most part. Don kept an eye on the radar throughout the day. It was only during supper that we were notified that there was still a strong band of storms headed our way and to make sure that our campsite was secure. Since we had spent the time the evening before when we pitched the tent, and properly secured everything then there was nothing more to do. As soon as the supper dishes and food were cleared away we headed for vespers. During our outdoor vespers I watched as the clouds passed swiftly overhead.

The sky during vespers.

The sky looked a bit ominous to the right, but over the camp itself you could see the
beauty of the sunset.

The sun is starting to go down.

The sky is growing darker to the right.

The Camporee staff were watching the weather radar on a laptop. Then the call was made for us to move inside. In just a matter of a few minutes over 400 children and adults quietly and calmly made their way into the lodge and settled down on the benches. It had all happened peacefully. No one was wet. We were all still safe and dry. A few minutes after we were all safely inside the rain started. And it poured. But we were safe and sound inside, and dry. We waited out the storm inside. It was short lived. Once it had spent it's fury we headed back to our campsite. We found our tents (and everything inside) safe, sound, and dry. As we climbed into our beds that night I thanked the Lord again for His provision for us. We had a dry place to sleep and enjoyed a gorgeous, warm sunny day for our last day of the Camporee.

You see the Lord had known all along that week that it would rain. He always does. But He heard and answered our prayers. We had seen him do it. More than one storm system that came through that day and had been kept away from the camp. When the last one came our way He let it come on through. But He knew that we had a safe, dry place to wait the storm out.

In life we don't always feel like we have a "safe, dry place" to wait out the storms. One of my favorite stories about Jesus is taken from the book of Mark. He has spent a long day talking to the people. The parables, or stories that He told them were practical, and easy for them to understand. After a day of teaching He and his disciples got into a boat and headed across the water. The Bible tells us that other boats followed them. Sometime after they left the shore Jesus went to sleep. As the boat was sailing into the night a storm came up. There was a very strong wind, so strong that the waves were coming into the boat and starting to fill it. Through all this Jesus was asleep in the stern of the boat on a pillow. They woke Him up and said "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" 

Maybe you are feeling like those disciples right about now. Feeling like the wind is whipping all around you, and that the waves are breaking over the boat and filling it quickly. We cannot always avoid these storms that come to us in life. And they will come. But what we can know is that the same Jesus who stood up in the boat on the Sea of Galilee and said "Peace be still" (Mark 4:39) wants to be in "our boat" with us today. And if Jesus is in "your boat" with you today, you have nothing to fear from even the fiercest storm that can be flung your way.

For more information about Pathfinders please visit the link below.

http://www.pathfindersonline.org/