Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Leap Day Prequel

"Look how fast the clouds are moving," I remarked to my husband last evening as we were headed to Kansas for a church meeting. Our friend was going to speak at a church outside Winfield, and we didn't want to miss hearing him. I knew the weather forecast had been for rain and thunderstorms, but it didn't seem threatening when we left home.

After a few wrong turns, we finally located the church out in the country. I was sure we had found it when I saw a big, lighted-up sign saying "CHURCH". Upon closer inspection, though, we saw it wasn't the church we were looking for. When we were just about to give up, we came upon the metal building with the "DUNAMIS CHURCH" sign on the front.

Some more of our friends and members of the speaker's family were there, and we enjoyed a good service. Afterward, I thought we would leave promptly, especially since I was very hungry, not having had supper. (Howard had wolfed down a hamburger and fries in the car, but I didn't want to eat then.)

"We have food here for anyone who is hungry," a friendly lady said to us after the service, indicating tables at the edge of the room. "I made chili and there is peanut-butter cake," she offered tantalizingly.

"I'm hungry, but I don't think I should eat chili this late," I demurred.

"Well, I'm going to get coffee," Howard said, as he headed toward the refreshment tables. Great, I thought, I'm hungry and he is taking his time. I walked over, too, thinking I could find a light snack. I put a few chips and a cookie into a paper bowl and nibbled a few minutes. Finally, though, the fragrant chili got the best of me, and I decided to have a bowl.

It was good! And not too spicy. We might as well stay awhile, I reasoned, since the rain had been pelting loudly on the metal roof of the building. This was turning out to be a blessing, shut in with the congregation with food and fellowship.

Then the lights began to flicker as the rain became louder. Once again, they flickered, then went out. It was so dark I couldn't see my hand before me, as the old saying goes, but somehow the last few bites of chili made it to my mouth.

"Thank God for cell phones," I heard someone say, as little phone lights began to flick on. A flashlight was found, and someone called for the auxiliary lights. Turns out the batteries on it were dead. My husband had a tiny light on his key ring which was like a candle in the darkness.

"It's still pretty windy out there," someone said as we peered out the glass doors. "I opened the door awhile ago and the wind about tore it off!" she exclaimed.

Still, it wasn't long before Howard was braving the elements and bringing the car around. At least it wasn't blowing quite so hard, and the moon was shining in a clear sky.

No sooner had we left the church than we saw utility workers' lights on a truck beside the road with a spotlight trained on the power lines. As we got closer, we could see why. The lines were down! Evidently a twisting wind had blown through while we were in church! Thank God, it missed the building!

Today I heard of damaging tornado reports in neighboring states. We felt blessed to get home safely from our 30-plus mile ride with only one incident: In the darkness, my husband had left his Bible on the church seat. We may have left the Bible behind, but God's Word and safekeeping were with us all the way!

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