Saturday of LOL's ministry trip to Vermont was the one day we did not have any shows.  Instead, we were scheduled to be in the Essex Junction Memorial Day parade, then go to a retreat center in Tunbridge owned by Sue Thomas of Sue Thomas FBEye fame.  In other words, we were going to spend the day outdoors.

The night befoe, however, we checked the forecast, and it was predicted to rain all day.  We searched possible indoor attractions we could take the kids to.  There's a cheese factory in the area. Seriously, 15 teens and tweens in a cheese factory?  Ben and Jerry's...maybe.  As four of us chaperones were searching the web for ideas when our Saturday would be rained out, my wife, Sue, was getting prayer chains started among friends back home in Maine.  When we woke up the next day, the forecast was better, but still there was supposed to be a lot of scattered thunder showers.We proceeded tentatively to the parade site.

We found our place in the parade line up, and things were looking good.  We warmed up, met people around us, and excitement built.  Then, 20 minutes before step off, a huge dark cloud rolled toward us from the west.  15 minutes prior to step off, the wind started gusting with a ridiculous force.  Not only was our banner fully inverted from the force of it, it was literally mpossible for the kids to juggle anything.  But, when it was time to step off, the wind stopped.  No exageration. It stopped.  The team  were all able to juggle without any problem, and in fact, they excelled.  Emily did a crazy behind the head diabolo catch at one point.  

Meanwhile, there was a pleasant cloud cover that kept us cool, and kept the jugglers from having to deal with sun in their eyes.  For the last 200 yards or so, there was a very light rain, enough to cool us down, but not enough to hamper anyone's performing.  We retuened to the fair grounds where we started, found our van, and only thien did the sky break open, and it poured!  For hours, it poured!  Sue's call for prayer was done, and clearly had a huge impact.

But, it DID pour.  And it poured all the way to Tunbridge.  Every single mile of the way.  But when we arrived at Water Brooks, we had to wait out 10 more minutes of rain, and it stopped for the day.  The sun came out, and we had a beautiful day.  We had a few work projects to do, then had worship, devotions, and prayer.  We had a wondeful cookout with Sue, her personal assistant, Deb, and another work team that was there that day, too. Sue Thomas has had some health concerns recently, but she's still as witty and determined as ever.  The kids loved meeting her (we watched the pilot episode of Sue Thomas FBEye before the tip) and many got autographs from her.

There were a lot of memories made that Saturday in Vermont, biut the thing that is most memorable is how, through prayers in response to my wife's plea, God gave us th eperfect weather when just the opposite was in the forecast.