Winter Wonderland Turned Combat Zone

Darkness and thick mists enveloped me. The sun had not yet risen. Fog swallowed the rays of my light, stopping it in its tracks. Complete silence was unexpectedly interrupted by a loud crack followed by a crashing sound far away. Then silence. Another crash, this one closer. All around me. Everything was wet and cold.

My surreal experience today does not describe some adventure scene out of Lord of the Rings, but rather, a day on Manitou Mountain at YWAM Ozarks during an ice storm. At the time, I was out placing buckets under gutters to collect rainwater. We were without electricity for 6 hours in the morning, and are currently going on 18 hours with no water. It has been raining all day, but the air is cold enough to make popsicles out of all our trees, bending their branches to the ground.


Pulling monstrous branches off the driveway with the tractor, heating water over a propane camping stove, cutting up a tree that went through the roof of our neighbor's house, and driving to my church to fill containers for drinking water - only to find out there was no power at the church! In the process, I went through 4 jackets, 2 sets of long underwear, 3 pairs of pants, 3 pairs of gloves, but I am thankful for my one pair of very waterproof boots!

And now, night approaches, it's still raining, and temperatures are expected to drop. We'll pile the blankets, bring the baby into bed with us, and wonder what tomorrow will hold!