Kingdomstrate

I am going to attempt to describe what took place this past weekend in Frazier Park, CA at the Bethel in the Hills campground. This blog will be long.

I was invited to speak at the winter youth camp for Pulse youth ministry out of Lancaster Assembly in Lancaster, CA. Ironically, the winter camp was ending on the first day of spring, which was this past Sunday. After renting a Hyundai Sonata here in San Diego, I traversed up I-5 to Frazier Park. I arrived at Frazier Park and headed up deep into the mountains where it looked at though I was seeing sparse homes that may have been preparing for the tribulation. It took me a while to navigate through the dirt road labriynth. I eventually found the campground. It was your typical rustic, in the middle of nowhere Christian campground. Not sure why they choose the most remote locations to have their campgrounds.

Friday night was set to start at 7pm. The church bus hauling 80 kids and adults was en route, but running late…like, really late. The service started at 9:45pm. I came into this winter camp quite exhausted so I was approaching delirium at this point. If you know me at all, you know when I enter the delirium zone, the humor goes to a rare place. So yes, the service was filled with delirious humor.

The service was great. Asthma healed, prophetic words released, and encounters with God’s love came down. The next day each service built upon the other. It was very powerful. A guy had two broken ribs and they were healed (he did push ups to prove it). His knee was also healed due to a car accident he was in recently. Most of the students who were healed were prayed for by other students, which I LOVE. Seeing others empowered to be used is what it’s all about for me. Another girl’s eyes were healed. Students heard God say, “put snow on her eyes” and they did and now she doesn’t wear glasses anymore. Jesus used mud and they used snow. Hello Jesus. There were so many encounters, healings, etc, that it’s hard to put them all down here. Suffice it all to say, Jesus said hello to a lot of students.

At the end of the Saturday night service I was walking back to my chic cabin at 10:45pm. It had started to snow but the forecast was for a “few inches”. I had one fleeting thought, “maybe I should drive home tonight”. Those words would come to haunt me in the morning. When I awoke from my mountain-air slumber I looked out the window to see a little more than a “few inches”. It was over a foot of snow and dumping more and more. I thought, “this will be interesting in my Hyundai Sonata”. Not exactly a vehicle to trounce upon feet of snow. I quickly showered and packed up hoping to get out. The youth pastor Kellen and I cleared my car of what seemed like 43 feet of snow. We were using a piece of cardboard and a dust pan. Tremendous tools of the trade for snow removal. I said goodbye knowing we would say hello again very soon. The Sonata got me about 10 feet and no more. I wasn’t going anywhere. This was not good since I was scheduled to speak at a church in San Diego that night and I was around 4 hours away.

What was quickly spreading through the whole camp was a harsh reality: we are not leaving. I went up to the main office to figure out options. There was a bus and 6 cars all with us, none 4x4. The camp director decided to help me get out to the main road where someone would pick me up to whisk me to San Diego. He had a 4x4 Expedition. We got about 200 yards away in the pouring snow (2 feet at this point) and got stuck along with his son’s truck behind us. It was hitting me as hard as the snow on the chapped cheeks: I am not getting home today or tonight.

As I walked back into the lodge where the 80 kids and adults were I was wondering about the food situation since I figured the food supply was for just the winter camp and not extra days. Yes, I was correct in that assumption. No one from the outside could bring food in because the main roads were closed. We were at 3 feet now and counting. No water, so we were boiling big pots of snow to create tea. We discussed options including riding a horse, yes, it was seriously considered to get food in. But, it wasn’t going to happen. So we rationed food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. As night came the snow as still pounding and at 4 feet and counting. There was a skosh of tension in the air because none of knew what was going to happen.

The good thing was we had heat…well, for a little bit. CHP had been contacted about our situation and they said to call if power goes out for more than 10 minutes and they would bring in a snow cat to get us out. I trekked back to my cabin to sleep and it was almost to my waist and no I am not exaggerating. Teeth brushed, jammies on…then power goes out. Didn’t realize how dark it could get in the middle of the forest atop a mountain. I figured it would come back on, but it wasn’t and with no heat it was becoming quite cold very quickly. Outside temp was 20 degrees with wind and snow.

One of the youth leaders came down with a flashlight to ask me to come up to lodge. Once we arrived at the lodge there was an emergency meeting. All 80 of us were listening to the dire news. CHP can’t make it out tonight due to the roads being closed. So, we are going to have to make it through the night. Remember, we have pretty much run out of food at this point. The lodge had two fireplaces so everyone was to sleep in the lodge. I brought my sleeping bag that’s good down to -20 degrees (thanks to Cecilee), so I decided to sleep in my cabin. There was so much snow that I grabbed a couple guys so we could clear off my car in fears of it collapsing under the weight. I have never seen this much snow in my life (grew up in Michigan and lived in Utah for 8 years), so it’s saying something. My car had what looked like close to 6 feet of snow on top. It was surreal. We cleared it off with pieces of wood and mixing bowls…yes mixing bowls. I was standing in waist deep snow and thus the car was jammed in all the way around.

I got back to my cabin that was very dark and cold. Climbed into my mummy bag and went to la la land. I woke up a couple times in middle of night to peak out and could see my breath (inside my cabin). It was freezing and pitch black. In the morning the snow had stopped and it was SUNNY. It was incredibly cold out but beautiful. Everyone was getting up as I came to the lodge and we tried to figure out WHEN CHP would arrive. They said they would come with the snow cat around noon. At this point we were eating string cheese and I shared some Weight Watchers chili, which was actually really good. Although, at that point, anything lacking fat probably not the best idea for this Ectomorph.

The snow cat didn’t arrive until 3pm. It was starting to snow again. The sheriff said we needed to get out pronto because ANOTHER storm was on the way and it was even BIGGER. What?!?! The kids rushed to pack and put all their luggage into the bus that would remain. Why you ask? Because the only way out was to hike 2 miles to the main road where CHP would send rescue vehicles to take us down mountain. The snow cat made a path and we all walked…all 80 of us, which included an infant. The snow cat thankfully took the infant and the mother to the road. We looked like a bunch of refugees trekking out of a winter war-torn land. We stopped halfway to assess everyone and it began to snow…AGAIN. Ominous clouds were flowing over the mountains and I knew the storm was coming. I told Kellen, the youth pastor we need to keep moving. The wind picked up and it felt very cold as the snow fell. We finally made it to the road where two rescue vehicles were waiting for us. The two trucks took 8 people total. I asked how far is the Flying J, which was our drop off. It was 12 miles EACH way. So, I mind began to compute this information given that we had 80 of us to get down mountain. If we only have 2 trucks where 8 people at at time can go down. That means 10 trips and 30 min each trip. That’s over 5 hours of waiting with a storm that is hitting. 

Thankfully, CHP sent up more trucks and we were able to get down the mountain as the storm hit and the road was to be closed again. We got out just in the nick of time. When we arrived at the Flying J, new cameras were greeting us. It was all over Channel 7 news.

It was too late for me to get another rental car, so I stayed in a hotel in Lancaster with the plan of finally going home in the morning. In the morning, the youth pastor and another leader took me to Budget. There were NO cars available. The other Budget also was out. Enterprise was out. Was this saga going to continue?? Ahhhh. Hertz had one car available and so Ryan (one of the youth staff) drove with me down to San Diego and then took the car back to Lancaster (thanks Ryan!).

You would think the drama has subsided, but no. Remember, my original rental car is still stranded 12 miles up the mountain in a hellish amount of snow. I had called in for 3 days of extensions at this point. But, today I cannot extend the rental any longer. The phone call with the manager of Budget was quite humorous as he wasn’t seeing the reality of their car stuck. He said, “why don’t you just go up there and get it?”. I believe he may have forgot about the previous conversation seconds earlier about how we were RESCUED OFF the mountain. Not sure what is going to happen with the car at this point, but it will probably be the most expensive rental car in the history of youth camps.

All in all it was an awesome camp. It will be one that I along with everyone involved will NEVER forget. The youth team did an incredible job in the face of some serious situations. The kids did great too handling it. The night the power went out, they went into spontaneous worship and I also preached spontaneously and it was crazy powerful. I am very thankful to be home, warm, and eating non-rationed food. This certainly tops them all for me as far as ministry trips is concerned. It will make in a book one day.