Fast forward two weeks. June 3rd . Another full session . Again great session. I still miss my small group girls.
Jump forward again . June 17,2012 The start of what we all thought was another normal full session. A great fun student body. Lots of energy but attentive , well behaved group. Wonderful first week , many good speakers. Normal daily life for staff. Until Saturday . . . . . . . . ........... 1:00 pm. We saw smoke coming from the mountain top a ways away. 2:30 pm. We see billows of more smoke. Go to sports time and park cookout. 6:30 return from park . 8:00 Staff meeting about smoke/fire. 9:00 Serious staff meeting about potential evacuation plan. During the course of the meeting we got the call that we were no longer in danger so we could either quite the meeting or proceed and talk it all out anyways. We did the later. (good idea always.) little did we know.......
Midnight. Myself and other staff are outside watching the smokiness and fireishness . (it was on the other side of the mtn so it was hard to see) . Suddenly the wind is in our face, 5 min later we see billowing flames coming over the mountain towards us! Sudden decision to go to bed.
1:09 am Sunday, June 10th . The evacuation call came. Chaos? Nope. Literally cool, calm ,collected leaders guided us , and in turn we the staff guided the students safely to the buses.
Within forty-five min we had every student , every staff, every faculty member , guests and all. 300 young people onto the buses with their overnight bag . Amazing.
Even more amazing, was the fact that Mountain Springs church welcomed us at 3AM with open arms....and sleeping bags......and pillows....and 50 air mattresses ...and water... And smiles! Crazy. We ended up staying there for an entire week. Mind blown. Who knew that the body of Christ still exists in that loving of a way . Wow. God is amazing. Life is crazy.
