Timberline: My Faith Tried

Timberline: My Faith Tried

(Timberline part 14)

The Lord is truly the one in charge of events and everything else that went into Timberline training. I have had several times when this fact has been proven to me without any shadow of doubt in my mind. One example of this was a weather related experience one year that I was the Course Director. We had been using the Mountain Top experience for a few years and it had become a special part of the week experience. This year however we had some rather good rainstorms and that was something I loved since it kept the dust down and wasn’t usually enough to cause mud problems. This time however it picked Thursday to rain all day and I knew we were going to be doing Mt Top but what good was that event without a proper sunset and with clouds covering the entire sky there was not going to be any sunset. So I prayed to Heavenly Father many times throughout the day asking for the rain to stop so we could have a good Mt Top experience. Well it just didn’t seem to let up but as I was praying at one point a thought something like this came to me, “Quit bothering Heavenly Father, he knows your needs and will give them when needed.” Well so I decided I just needed to exercise my faith a lot more and be satisfied with the knowledge that He was in charge and would temper the weather when needed. Well we started to gather on the assembly field and it was still raining but as I wanted to start another prayer that thought came to me again so I stopped. We were able to have all of the patrols line up, give the instructions for the night and start toward the summit of the nearby hill where the event would take place. The trail led past an area where we could see down across the scenery of beyond Price and toward southern Utah. Just as we were walking by the clouds broke the rain stopped and the sun shone brightly through them creating a beautiful rainbow. I silently sent a prayer to my Heavenly Father thanking Him for stopping the rain like I knew He would. We gathered on the peak and began our program with the wind howling past us but I didn’t mind since it wasn’t carrying a driving rain with it. Well as Duaine Williams began the “Title of Liberty” story for the boys that was to demonstrate why America is so special I watched as he held up the flagpole with the Title of Liberty attached to it. Duaine is a large man and was a football player for BYU at the time and yet it was taking a good deal of his strength to keep from loosing his grip on that pole. The wind was blowing the flag so hard that it whipped straight out from the pole. As Duaine got to the part where he would be required to hold the pole with one hand as he quickly pulled the Title of Liberty free from the pole to reveal the American flag I said a prayer of thanks to Heavenly Father coupled with another request. I said a thank you for stopping the rain and said “Now if only the wind would stop”. The flag fell limp against the pole as that thought went through my mind and surprised Duaine so much that he stopped and looked at the flag momentarily forgetting the next part of the memorized script he was quoting. I instantly thought to myself, as I was still in the midst of that silent prayer, “I understand” and I did. I knew exactly who was in charge of the weather and as I completed that thought the wind again began to blow. It was a testimony to me that I have never forgotten and will likely never be able to forget. I know who directs Timberline and at that time it wasn’t me nor is it ever the Scoutmaster or any other mortal person at the camps each year.