Do You Heed The Promptings ?

Many people claim that miracles don't happen any more.  Some claim that they not only do happen but that they happen much more often than we realize.  I am in the latter category.  I am convinced that our loving Heavenly Father provides us with promptings through the whisperings of the Holy Ghost and these can bring about miracles if we just listen to them and act upon them.

Two examples from just this morning:
 - Thinking about getting all of our scouts' equipment was a big stress on my mind and a topic of conversation much of last evening.  My wife felt impressed to make some phone calls early this morning to see if I could go back to the camp to collect belongings.  Within an hour I was on the road with my son, having gotten permission to go to the camp and gather our belongings.  When we arrived at the camp, we found out that we had literally a one hour window during which we could pack up camp.  Had my wife waited to call we would NOT have been able to get everything for ourselves and the rest of our camp.
 - Just before our mad rush to get to the camp, the thought crossed my mind "take that extra seat out of the back of the big van before you go."  There was no reason to do so as our camp's equipment would have already fit in the rest of the van (2 rows of seats were already removed) ... but I listened to the prompting.  We took 3 minutes to pull out the seat and were on our way.  AFTER packing up our campsite, one of the camp directors asked if we had any "extra room" to collect items from another campsite.  Because the seat had been removed, we did have room, so we proceeded to assist with the loaded of half of another campsite's personal items.

I am sure if you think about it for a few minutes, you'll quickly become aware of a recent time when you felt impressed or prompted to say or do something that may have seemed out of the ordinary at that moment.  If you listened in that time, then you probably also have a memory of a positive outcome to that story.  Kudos to you for listening to the spirit.  You've just allowed God to work a miracle (however small it may have been) through you.

Song Of The Day:
I am using "The Quickest Road" by The Duke's Men Of Yale as the song from this post.  How does this relate?  The quickest road to a miracle is a straight line between you and the spirit.  Also, the drive to (and home from) Camp Dobbins was much better today because we didn't have to go out to I-25.
And for me, that was another nice little miracle!  :)

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Have You Ever Been Evacuated ?

The smoke cloud first came into view yesterday afternoon.  The scouts at the stables working on the Horsemanship merit badge, were busy cleaning saddles and completing other requirements.  One of the camp staff attempted to discreetly pull aside one of the MB instructors, but he made a big scene of it and suddenly everyone saw the growing plume of smoke in the near distance.

Camp Cris Dobbins is located on the Peaceful Valley Ranch just off Elbert Road in eastern Colorado.  The Black Forest fire began just about 6 miles west of this location, so there was certainly cause for concern.  With that in mind, the remainder of last night went as scheduled, and there never seemed to be much concern about the fire.  In fact, it wasn't until about 10:30am today that we even smelled smoke or saw small pieces of ash in the camp.

That is a sign I should have paid attention to because less than an hour later the sirens were sounding and we would be spending over 4 hours standing in the sun waiting to be evacuated and checked in to the shelter.  I've had late lunches before but this was almost an early dinner.

We left the camp in a slow, mostly organized fashion and drove to the Elbert County Fairgrounds.  While waiting to check in there, my son and I were interviewed by a reporter for the Denver Post.  I'll have to check later to see if we're actually quoted in the article at all.

I thought the worst part of the experience would be the burning sun and long wait for some mediocre lunch food ... but the drive home made everything else seem like a day in the park.  We were not allowed to drive south on Elbert road, which would have allowed us to catch US-24 to Falcon and then take Woodmen road straight home.  Instead, we had to drive north all the way up to Castle Rock, just to catch I-25 south back to Colorado Springs.  Without heavy traffic, that would still have taken an hour or more to complete.  Because of evacuees and regular rush hour traffic, the drive took well over 2 1/2 hours.  The length of that trip led to car sickness for two of the boys and a horrific bloody nose for my son.  Be grateful there are no pictures of that.

All in all, I am pleased at how well the senior camp staff and Red Cross volunteers (as well as police officers, etc.) did to ensure safety of over 1200 scouts, leaders, and camp staff.  Things were no picnic, but they could have been considerably worse and so I am grateful.  I just hope we can get our stuff soon (literally everything was left at camp).

Song Of The Day:
Getting out safely but with lots of stress is a bittersweet feeling, so "Bittersweet Symphony" by The Verve is my song for this post.  Grateful for the shower and comfortable bed, but now my thoughts are turned toward those people whose homes are being destroyed who are not as fortunate.

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