The Flood.

Week two.

Gosh you guys. I am lucky to have found such a beautiful little camp tucked away in a valley between the rolling hills of rural Maryland. But isn't it always a bit overwhelming walking into a place where you have never set foot and you know no one? I think yes. 

On my first new day in a brand new place, I was prepared  to step into a world that I would come to know for the next year, just waiting to be discovered. 

But first I stepped right into a huge puddle. 

See the thing is that valleys flood...

Four days straight of rain and counting. It seems to be God's way of saying, "Welcome! Grab an umbrella, a pair of boots, and jump on in (or try to tread carefully, but either way your feet are going to get wet)!" Just like that, myself and the 5 other college aged interns were out there playing in puddles, becoming family, and standing in awe of the power of water.

The small creek that used to run through camp became a raging river. The bridges were under water and all we could do was observe. We sat, looked, and listened, waiting for the rain to let up. This is what we heard:  

"You clothed the earth with floods of water,

      water that covered even the mountains.

 At your command, the water fled;

      at the sound of your thunder, it hurried away.

 Mountains rose and valleys sank

      to the levels you decreed.

 Then you set a firm boundary for the seas,

      so they would never again cover the earth.

You make springs pour water into the valleys,

      so streams gush down from the mountains...

You send rain on the mountains from your heavenly home,

     and you fill the earth with the fruit of your labor."

                                                     Psalm 104:6-13

Matt (the boss) read this Psalm aloud as we simply sat under the porch watching the river carve through our new home.

Just makes you think. If days 1-3 have been flooded (literally) with new experiences, awesome new people, and a new perspective of the power of God, what do you suppose the next 350 or so days have in store? I surely don't know. But with an open mind and an open umbrella, I'm ready to find out... and ready to see the sun again :-)

And even when I fall I'll get back up, for the joy that overflows my cup. Heaven filled me with more than enough, broke down my levees and my bluffs. Let the flood wash me.                                                         "Further Along" by Josh Garrels