On Wednesday night I returned from my tenth Wilderness trip. I can honestly say that each one is unique in its own way and I learn something every time I go. This year was no exception on both accounts. This year’s trip was unique for several reasons; first it was the smallest group of teens I’ve ever taken, giving us more opportunity to get to know each other. But also, it rained. Now, every time I’ve gone it’s rained a little. We’ve had a full day of rain, scattered showers, light drizzle, even thunderstorms, but I’ve never had this much rain. It was raining when we first put into the water at our starting point and we didn’t see the sun for three days. We set up tents in the rain, cooked in the rain, slept
while it rained, broke camp while it rained, and canoed in the rain. We had good tents, tarp rain shelters, and rain jackets, so we stayed dry for the most part, but rain just makes it kind of miserable. But the Wilderness needed the rain…
On July 18th the Algonquin Park Service issued a fire ban in the entire park because of extreme drought conditions. They even had a forest fire in the east end of the park this summer. This fire ban continued for three weeks until the day before we left. When we arrived, I had never seen the water that low. Some lakes were two feet below normal level. The waterfall that we normally enjoy was a trickle.
I remember distinctly one afternoon coming out of a portage trail heading into another lake (in the rain) and thinking to myself, “I could pray and ask God for it to stop raining…” Then like a flood (pun intended) it hit me, am I that selfish that I think the whole universe revolves around my comfort? I’m sitting in the middle of a forest that DESPERATELY needs this rain. Am I really expecting God to deprive his creation of what it needs for what I want. Needless to say I did not pray for the rain to stop, instead I praised God for the rain and how He provides and watches over ALL of His creation, including me.
It did stop raining eventually. It was sunny and warm on our “solo day”. That was God’s perfect timing for us. Then it rained again the next two days, but by that time we were used to it.
Praising God in the rain,
DC