What's a Little Rain?

Tom was driving his scouts home from Gettysburg this morning. My daughter and son in law were meeting me at church.

By the time I left for “Church in the Park” it was raining lightly so I brought along a sturdy poncho. All of the fifteen minute drive was the same slow steady rain.

When I got to the park it was raining slightly heavier and I was glad I had the poncho.  There were several canopies set up in front of the covered stage and Bill was praying for communion.  Pastor Jen was standing in the paved area in front of the stage with her rain jacket and her full worship on. As the second worship song began to play she stubbornly stood her ground and let the rain pelt her. She was not going to let a little rain stop her! But by the time the second worship song had begun we could all hear the thunder rolling in and I began to pray for protection.

I was sharing Jimmy and Taffy’s canopy and I leaned over and whispered in Taffy’s ear, “Remember the Iron Dome over Israel? We have an Iron Dome here.” “That’s good to hear!” She answered.

Taffy, Jimmy and I, with several others from Shore Life Church, had traveled to Israel in 2016. We learned that there’s an all weather air defense system designed to identify and destroy all incoming short range rockets. That’s the Iron Dome.

Soon the thunder was right over head and we could see the lightning flashing all around. Then, suddenly, GIANT hand came out of the clouds and pushed all our canopies over! (Well, not a giant hand per se, but it sure felt and looked like it!) People started jumping up and hanging onto the canopy poles but Mark was yelling, “Don’t hold onto the canopy poles!” as the thunder and lightning intensified.

And then… someone unzipped the sky and it rained SO HARD that nobody stayed dry! I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it rain harder than that! I was so relieved to have that poncho as. I was other struggle with being soggy! I think Pastor Jen and I were the only women to escape with dry hair!

Mark’s announcement from the stage was, “Church is over! We can’t go on with this wind and rain. Please drive carefully.” And just like that, we all bolted for our cars!

By this time everyone, under a canopy or not, was drenched to the bone! And I could not get my chair to fold up so I grabbed a corner of it and dragged it to the Jeep that was parked waaaaaay too far away!

So much for wearing the pretty dress I’d embroidered! It was so heavy on me! And although I was wearing that poncho, my full length dress, to the knees was dripping wet and even up to the neckline was wet!

I spent meany years going to summer Christian festivals in PA and Va and knew all about sitting in the rain in an open field. My first festival, Jesus ’75 was a slippery, muddy quagmire almost from beginning to end! So I didn’t mind the rain. I kinda saw it as an adventure.  You know, it’s so important to have a sense of humor!