A Week Ago...Part 1

This time last week, I was at Martin's Cove but the sun was shining and the kids were getting used to handcarts, and I was driving a truck. Well, I moved a truck.

It was our first day of trek. Having ridden in buses to get there for 6 hours or so, the kids got out and we had some orientation. The video was narrated by President Hinckley, who, of course I loved, so I was weeping as I listened to him tell the stories of the pioneers in this place. He spoke to those who visit there that this is a sacred place. Then our Stake President, President Allred, spoke to the kids about their charge to "Never, no never, no never forget". He had us sing that last section from the hymn How Firm a Foundation. That last line became the unofficial motto of the trek.

Once done with orientation and the rules for hand carting, the kids got into their families and loaded their carts with their water coolers and buckets and trekked off to the campsite. We were staying about 3 miles away from the visitor's center. Already, some of the whinier ones were riding in carts, or dinking around. You get that kind in any crowd, but here, where we were walking where pioneers sacrificed their lives, it was disheartening.

This is where I moved a truck. Several sets of "grandparents" had driven up with another adults and they were all walking with their families. The vehicles needed to be moved the three miles to join the campsite. So, since it was a shorter hiking day and some of the ladies with us who came as support staff weren't going to be able to hike the long days, I opted to let them hike the short day and I moved the truck.

There is a scripture I'd like to share here about this 'secret wish' of my heart--to be driving, rather than hiking. It is found in D & C 62:7. It goes like this: "I, the Lord, am willing, if any among you desire to ride upon horses, or upon mules, or in chariots, he shall receive this blessing, if he receive it from the hand of the Lord with thankful heart in all things."

Now, I would be very grateful to drive a truck the whole way at this point, but I knew deep down, that was not going to happen. But it was still fun to pull that scripture out when President Allred tried to tease me about being a wimp on the first day.

Anyway, we got the support crew and their chariots, I mean vehicles, to the campsite and began to lay out what the company commanders (our stake committee kids) needed to do when the whole group came into camp. Before I knew it, the entire line of families came right over the little crest at the edge of the campsite and the line of handcarts with flags flying was pretty cool to behold. The kids got to work finding their family's space and setting up their camps. The cooks were already at work--they were always at work with 278 people to feed three times a day!--getting their dinner going.

We had a fireside planned after dinner that night with a missionary who portrays Ephraim Hanks. He tells the story of Brother Eph and his part in the rescue of the Martin Company. We listened in the amphitheater and watched a beautiful lightning storm come up over the mountains in the west. It was just getting dark enough for flashlights when the fireside ended and we headed over for dessert--brownies! Just 15 minutes after the closing prayer at the fireside, that storm we had watched was directly over us and let us have it. 'Micro-burst' is probably the meteorological name for that kind of thing, but it felt like someone had ripped a zipper open and rain, wind, hail, thunder and lightening were failing all over us.

It lasted about an hour, but we seriously lost probably five tents or so, some blown away or damaged beyond repair. Tent poles shattered, everything--literally everything--that had been in the tents or outside was soaked! Bedding, clothing, everything. We had a good group of kids completely freaked out by the lightning. Maybe these kids don't get out much?

As soon as the worst was over, the rescuing began.

Trek brothers were checking on their trek sisters. Grandparents and aunts & uncles were looking over their "kids". Mas and Pas were settling the nerves of their families. We saw boys in a stronger tent that survived the storm, give it up and help move in girls who lost their tent. We saw people shuffling stuff in the surviving tents to make room for those without for the night.

We had two very freshly returned missionaries (Tommy home just a week from Russia, and Spencer home only 2 days from Denmark) with us. Their parents were on trek as grandparents and as Chaplains and the RMs came along for the adventure, before real life and jobs and school had to begin. Tommy and Spencer were immediately in missionary mode. They were out cleaning up or helping people move their wet gear, or shuffling tents between kids. Our stake girls' tent had completely collapsed and was soaked to the ground underneath it. These two elders along with our stake boys, got their tent back up, and then Spencer and Tommy using their own washcloths, wiped out the water and mud from the floor of the girls' tent. Every last drop. And they were smiling as they did it. These two were incredible to watch all week. I think I began to love them when I saw their smiling faces poke out from the tent telling us they "were fine and were almost done here".

That night was perhaps the best beginning to our week of trek. It forced upon us some selflessness and service. You love those you serve, and the love began that night after the storm. The Lord was aware of what we needed. We had done all we could to plan, but He knew what we needed moment to moment. His hand was in this every day, every hour. He was blessing us before we even knew it was a blessing.

Stay tuned, gentle readers...we have four more days to recall.