For those of you who wanted to hear of the great flood at Pow Wow here is
my husbands version of North Texas Pow Wow 2000.
It was a dark and stormy night. Well, that pretty well sums it up. BUT
if you want the gory details, read on…
We started out with the typical perfect Council Fire. The grass was knee
high and even the mosquitoes got saved as they feasted on Holy food. Kids
came down to get saved and filled with the Spirit.
Pow Wow, I admit is my favorite camp because Paul Patterson finds the
best praise youth bands. Even though I'm the only one dancing, standing or
jumping, I enjoy the music.
Well, night fell and the rumor of the rain up north moving our way was
eminent. So we bunked down around midnight and it was hot and muggy. Praise
God for the rain, it was cool and soothing. It just didn't stop. So at 5:30
am Cmdr. Southerly Buster (who was on his first outing) went to shower. On
the way back I explained to my neophyte friend that our attitudes would
dictate the boys attitude.
So when we arrived at the camp we tied a tarp over the cook stove. Then
asked if Sr. Cmdr was awake. Yeah! "Cmdr Ivey, it is the most beautiful
morning I've ever seen. It's a great day!" I said. He laughed. I glanced
in the direction of his tent; the Cmdr. camping behind his tent had a puzzled
look on his face as if I must have hit my head on a rock. No. I was
standing there wearing a trash bag poncho walking around with two inches of
mud caked on the bottom of my shoes, tying up a tarp and looking for matches.
Rain happens. Life goes on.
Of course it stopped by flag raising. We were amazed and intrigued when
FCF shot a canon. It blew us away. It only took 9 tries after all that
rain. FCF is very persistent. It just hit me…what Cmdr. Explained to his
wife "Honey, I bought a canon for FCF. Park your car outside and we can keep
it in the garage!"? I also thought of kids left at home with a loaded canon.
Then mom gets a call at work, "Mommy, I love you." Mom says, "What do you
want?" Kid's reply, "Mom, didn't you always want on sunroof in the living
room?"
Due to no lack of preparedness or lack of camping skills the rain over
came and some Outposts got water in their tents and went home Saturday
evening. Those were the smart ones.
Saturday night it rained then it poured and every boy was sound asleep as
Cmdrs. Moved and squirmed to avoid the drips. I never slept with my toes in
water but it wasn't bad. About 3:00 am my son woke up and had to go to the
bathroom in the middle of this downpour. He sat there Indian style for five
minutes hunched over with his hands in his lap not knowing what to do. I
couldn't stand to see him suffer anymore. So I opened the tent flap and said
do it. So He stood in the tent and went into the two inches of water rushing
past us. I explained it was ok as the rain was washing it all away. Nature
won.
I was awake most of the night but went to sleep around 4:00 am when Ken
Harris' came to our campsite on a bulldozer to tell us to get our boys to
higher ground. Ken Harris received this revelation I guess around three.
You see Ken was camping by the lake and he was rudely awakened by his air
mattress that was floating and slapping against the side of his tent. Ken
said, "I thought I was in the lake." He had to reach down through a foot of
water before he found the ground. He alerted staff then went to the
campsites and just started pulling up tents were literally half under water.
So about forty of us started out under the pavilion several more outposts
trickled in before and after sunrise. Staff passed out left over ponchos,
and brought us hot tea and hot Kool-aid. Ken organized several Cmdrs. to go
down in groups to help camp sites pack up and put their equipment in the
front loader then drop it off up the hill.
FCF reconnaissance sprang into action t help. I'm not an experienced
flood victim, but I would imagine the threat of homeless snakes could be a
concern. Sr. Cmdr. Ivey told me his boys were starving as they did not get
there gear till around 12:00 pm, so he took his boys to Denney's. He said
"we got the strangest looks form customers seeing a Cmdr. And six boys
covered in mud from head to toe.
I took one last look before I left. My jaw hit the ground. The shoreline
of the lake was at least 75 feet higher than it was when I went to sleep.
Our camp theme was "It Is Well." I want them to change my patch to It Is
Wet. Some campers have been through fire and flood. I'm half way there. I
want my flood badge (such a thing?) and I am going to make I survived Pow Wow
t-shirts for my son and I.
Hope you enjoyed.
In Christ's Love,
Chris Gist
_______
To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe rangernet" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"Eat the hay & spit out the sticks! - A#1's mule" RTKB&G4JC!
http://rangernet.org Autoresponder: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
