Let me start off by saying I’m probably as far from outdoorsy as it gets. In fact, when a mentor from back home found out I was going camping, he sent me a text asking if I had been kidnapped. So when my friends decided we were going to go camping, I honestly had no idea what I was getting myself into.
Because College Station basically shuts down on game days and in traffic, it takes an hour to go five miles, we were later getting to the lake than we had planned. The sun was setting, and people all around us had already set up tents and had fires roaring. We started to unpack and tackle the task of setting up our tent. Things went downhill VERY quickly.
I’m not sure why none of us anticipated having issues setting up the tent, especially when you consider the fact that not a single one of us has ever sent up a tent. But there we were, four girls, one giant tent, and written directions and diagrams and tent stakes scattered around the grass.
As the sun set lower, the sky grew darker, and the tent, despite our best efforts, became more and more of a giant mess. We tried everything. We watched YouTube tutorials, stuck dozens of stakes in the ground, and arranged the tent poles in every way we could possibly think of with every ounce of strength we had, yet each time the tent became even more of a tangled, jumbled mess.
Fast forward to two and a half hours later when spirits were running thin. We were tired and discouraged. We asked every able-bodied person we could think of in the area for help, but none came.
It was pitch black, and we still had absolutely nothing to show for it. Thankfully, our friend assigned to making the fire was having much better luck than we were. She called us over to the fire, and we all sat in a defeated silence. What was supposed to be a fun, carefree, memorable trip was quickly turning into a disaster!
Suddenly, an aroma filled the air, as we all realized how hungry we were from our failed efforts. Our despair quickly turned to joy when we realized our sweet friend had made cobbler! She came to our rescue as she starting heaping gooey, buttery peach cobbler onto our plates. As we ate, a newer, more upbeat and rawer energy started to settle in as we let our frustrations go and laughed about our now halfway standing tent. It was like all of us had let out a sigh of relief as we all realized how nice it was to all be together, shelter or no shelter. We were going to be okay.
After our much-needed break, we decided to take another shot at the tent. No longer relying on our own abilities, we finally decided to take a pride check and ask for help from our most likely worried parents. Approximately twenty minutes and one phone call later, the tent was up, and we were blatantly aware of our inabilities yet so, so thankful for parents willing to pause a football game to help four clueless girls in WAY over our heads.
Even though we all felt a bit sheepish about our wasted evening, after moving all of our sleeping bags inside and gathering around the fire, we all were thankful for the experience. We all saw how God had worked through an undesirable situation to draw us closer together, not to mention we had an entertaining story to tell. And that’s what we did the rest of the night. We told stories. We shared our hearts.
We hugged, we sometimes felt like crying, we shared our fears, our insecurities. We talked about all the great things God has done in our lives. We shared how thankful we were to have one another. I know for me, I spent most of senior year praying I would find great, Godly girls to learn and grow and do life with, and few times in my life have I seen a prayer answered in such a beautiful and tangible way, as it was in this night when we couldn’t set up a tent.
We were blessed with beautiful weather the time we went camping. It was cool enough to be comfy curled up around the fire in sweats and blankets, but warm enough to not freeze to death that night in the tent. It didn’t rain, which we were grateful for because although the tent was up, our rain cover left something to be desired, and most likely would not have held up in the event of actual rain. But we woke up the next morning refreshed and VERY relieved that our tent had made it through the night.
Just as The Lord’s mercies are made new every morning, our spirits and attitudes were much more positive and peaceful when we woke up that next morning. We sang worship songs, our less-than-mediocre voices traveling heavenward. It was the perfect ending to an unexpectedly incredible time, a time when friends became best friends and life was just a little better than usual.