Praise God for Water!
We had temperatures as low as -3 during our Summer Staff Winter Retreat. Warmer weather brought us thirty-one inches of snow in one storm, taking our total snow to fifty-seven inches on the ground. It settled of course, but that is still pretty deep. It was at this point that our water turned to a sad trickle from the faucets. There was a broken pipe, somewhere under all that snow.
The camp is connected to water pipes that span sixty acres of land. That is a lot of piping which is under a lot of snow. I love snow! It is delightful to play in, although not as delightful to plow out of the roads. Princess Leia Freyja adores snow.
But having four feet of snow on the ground, snow that was rained on and then faced a cold snap that froze it into masses of ice, well that does not make digging for a broken pipe any easier. Presuming that you have even the faintest idea where to dig.
If one were to dig here, they would find Bomber’s car and our family car Glamdring hibernating. Days went by, we survived on a trickle of water. No laundry was washed, no dishes were cleaned, we went to camp (where the water-pressure was a tiny bit stronger) to take lightning-fast showers. Scruffy and Bomber searched and searched all of the places where they imagined a leak might be lurking.
Searching, digging, desperate praying. The trickle grew smaller and smaller. The vast amount of piping seemed to spread endlessly through the forest under that blanket of snow. We continued to pray. We grew more desperate. We asked others to pray with us and as our panic grew and our water dwindled, we kept forcing ourselves to follow the camp verse. 1 Peter 5:7–Casting all your cares upon Him for He cares for you.
Constant praying and desperate searching … over and over and over. We gave the camp to God, over and over again. Then Bomber glanced at the old abandoned pump house sitting lonely on a hill. She decided to look inside, just because. It was full of water!
The desperate searching turned to desperate digging. Scruffy and Bomber dug the snow away and made a big pit that Princess Leia Freyja was very concerned would swallow Scruffy whole. But there was too much water, they couldn’t find the leak. Thankfully, John Torrance brought up a sump pump and they were then able to separate the old unused piping from the rest of the system, stopping the leak!
It truly was a miracle. All of that pipe and all of that snow, and Bomber just happened to walk right to the leak after searching for days. The Lord is so gracious. He has made it possible for us to continue to serve campers. Campers who get to have water! Plus, now we all get to wash dishes and clothes and have a nice long shower. Praise the Lord for His love and care!
