Modern Day Miracles

I recently returned from Spring Break in the beautiful Rocky Mountains near Colorado Springs. The Navigators headquarters are located there, and I've had many opportunities to enjoy all that it has to offer over the last two years on staff, including a beautiful castle, that the Interior Designer in me nerds out about!! The Navigators also have a camp for kids aged from elementary to high school located right on the other side of the mountain. Some of you may have heard about the Waldo Canyon Wildfire last summer. This wildfire not only destroyed over 300 homes (several of which were Navigator staff members homes) it also threatened Glen Eyrie (the castle), headquarters, and Eagle Lake Camp.

 I remember hearing about the fire while in Jacksonville this summer and prayers immediately started going up. To give you a sense of what this fire was like, here is a picture posted by a staff member who was evacuated:

During the fire we would hear reports about how close the fire was to Navigator property or where it was on the property, but no reports about whether or not it had actually destroyed buildings. After the fire, we heard that the fire literally went around Eagle Lake Camp (only destroying one cabin) and stopped before reaching Glen Eyrie and our Headquarters building. These reports and stories were amazing just to hear about, but we got to experience them first hand last week.

As we drove up the mountain to Eagle Lake Camp, further and further out of service and civilization, we saw more and more bits of forest that had been destroyed. We saw parts that had been already cleared after the fire. We saw lines of trees untouched right next to lines of burnt trees. God's sovereignty was visible in the aftermath. Here are some pics of the drive up the mountain; followed by some of the modern day miracles!

 

This is my favorite!! That is Pikes Peak in the background. I feel as though this picture captures the theme of the week: Ashes to Beauty based from Isaiah 61!!

Eagle Lake Camp staff as they left without knowing what they would come back to, prayed for just one person to care about this place as much as they did. Well, as firefighters were on the property to fight the fire (at one point being surrounded) one in particular kept finding Bible verses strewn about and realized that he was helping to protect a Bible camp. As a Christian, this particular firefighter, started to pray and continued to fight with more passion. The one person prayer was answered!

As the fire inched closer and closer, obviously the situation got more and more critical. Then something happened, that none of the firefighters had ever seen before. The fire turned!! It was descending the mountain towards the camp, and then just turned the other direction (You'll see pics in the next story of this). Like it hit a wall and couldn't go any further! How cool is that?!

We not only helped with clean up, but also helped prep everything for their regular camp season, so I ended up actually painting a lot over the week. One of the things that I was able to help paint was the caretakers house. I enjoyed this for many reasons: heat, a framed view of Pikes Peak out the front window while working, and also we got to hear their story of the fire. The caretaker and his wife were actually visiting family in Arizona when the wildfire broke out. When they heard that the camp was threatened, they drove all night long to get back to their house and camp, but when they got to the road the forest was already closed. All they had with them was what they took on vacation and prayer. Lots of prayer. Can you imagine not knowing whether or not your house is in tact/all of your memories are in that house?! I can't!! (I know, I know. treasures in heaven, but I would want to at least try to save some memory books I have). Anyways, the fire that was descending got probably within 300 ft of the caretakers house. Standing on the porch of the house and looking straight across to the other hill with the road in between, there was the fire line!

From the front porch with only the road in between. 

These were just the stories from Eagle Lake Camp let alone stories from Glen Eyrie and Headquarters. Here is another cool picture of God's provision of just how close the fire got to Glen Eyrie.

Does this not just show how sovereign our Awesome God is?!! Soo close, yet even the fire listens to God. Just for reference Eagle Lake Camp is on the other side of that mountain peak. 

And just for fun, here are some pictures of the other things we did this week: 

Just enjoying the cold and painting!

A fellow EDGEr and our only heat source in the bathroom.

We finished the walls and painted all the red you see.

Emily, Allison and I painted all week together. If you look closely you can see paint in all of our hair.

Our fun night out we played cosmic mini golf.

Overall, Spring Break was a great bonding experience not only for KSU students to get to know each other, but also to get to know fellow Navigators at KU and UNK. We were able to hear from great speakers all week, work together for the Lord, and see amazing sunrises/sunsets over the mountains. God.is.great.