The forecast called for heavy rain with a 50-70% probability. Derrah, our team’s point man for the Fall camp out, picked up the phone on Friday to confirm with me that we were still going to go forward with the camping trip we had planned for international students from the area. We both sensed God’s peace about this trip and we also mobilized many of you and others to pray that God would spare us weather that will take away from the camping experience that we had planned for the weekend together with Grace Fellowship Church of Stephenville. It was amazing God did that and more.

Stephenville has been called the Cowboy Capital of America and students from UTA, UTD, SMU, and Texas A&M University were treated to a Cowboy experience in this special place! As we arrived there were small drops of rain and several of the students had already arrived. We were greeted by the smiling face of Pam and were treated to some wonderful hamburgers out in the open under the trees (all our meals were there). The local Cowboy Church brought its horse drill team and they gave us a show worthy of the Fort Worth Stockyards of horsemanship and pageantry. AFter that, some local cowboys showed us their skill in roping rounding up some calves. This was all done in the “stadium” on George DeVries ranch. Every year George, a Grace Fellowship Church member, provides this special experience on his large and pastoral dairy ranch.

After the expert display of the cowboy arts, the students got their turn to play cowboy. They rode horses, shot skeet with a shotgun and fished int he fully stocked pond on George’s land. While it rained a bit during this time, the heavy stuff stayed away and the students had a great time. I traveled with the UTA crew and hung out with some Chinese and Colombian friends. For most of them, this was their first camping experience and definitely to shoot, ride and fish this was a first and yet even with the rain, there were smiles all around!

Some seminary that I met when I shared at DTS and SWBTS came along and made themselves available to help in many ways including cooking, setting up and just hanging with the students. They were great. They really intereacted with the students. Two of them spoke Spanish and one of the UTA students from Colombia was so new to the US he jsut beamed when he realized there were some people there that spoke his language and cared about him.

After a dinner of fresh (from the ranch) beef fajitas cooked by the owners of a local Mexican eatery and some of the workers on the ranch, we had a rousing camp fire led by Ryan, one of the seminary students. Between games of Chubby Bunny, Chinese fireside songs, etc. everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Again, the rain, a constant specter just over the horizon stayed away!

The next day, after a night of sleep in tents on a relatively balmy night, (it only rained a little bit) we went on to the Stephenville Opry where Grace Fellowship Church helped the students experience a country church worship service. The students seemed to respond well, especially when Pastor David, a good friend of our ministry for many years, shared the story of God’s miraculous healing of his daughter after a near death experience as a result of a four-wheeling accident.

After lunch in the small town city park, we toured George’s dairy operation. We saw, among other things, a 15 minutes old calf and cows being milked. I think the students were struck by how much like a factory this was and how much farming today is a business.

Then it was time to leave. When all was said and done, the student spoke with gratitude and excitement. They had so many firsts and they really got the see the love of Christ lived out in the townspeople, the seminary students, etc. It was truly a blessing. In addition… God showed himself in the weather. Early in the morning on Sunday, I checked out the radar plot of the storms to see what to expect, and it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. There were lines of large storms to the north of us and lines of storms to the south of us but through the middle, where we were, there seemed to be a corridor of calm. The plot kind of reminded me of the crossing of the Red Sea. I was touched deeply. God was listening to all your all’s prayers!