and the thunder rolls

so tonight was an interesting and surreal experience.
i went to tabernacle with all the 4000+ campers. i had heard mixed reviews on the speaker, but was going in hopes of extracting a nugget from the message on which to focus the devotional i was assigned to do afterwards.
the speaker was interesting.
theological issues aside,
just the style and manner of speaking that he had was accostic to me, personally. i felt confused and stressed out. lots of fast fast talking and rabbit trails and forgetting why he even started this story and wandering if there was a reason he was talking about this or that and thinking that he acts a lot like brian regan and jim carey had a really crazy baby.
the invitation was high pressure. there was the usual background music that helps to conjure up emotion. but on top of that he had a fast talking long lasting build up to a count down for when people should act on their decision.
on the count of three.... blah blah blah.... so when i get to three... yadda yadda.... so i'm going to count to three..... (music getting louder. voice cracking in desperation) one.... two... three go go go.
there was a few kids literally running down the aisle. confused look of panic on their face....
oh man.
it was odd.
so i leave with my friend to get a head start on the kids that will soon exit to come to our station. but there is a nasty storm rolling in complete with strobe-lightning and thunder.
so they contain the youths in the tabernacle until they can get some solid forecast and know if it is going to be tornadoes.
after standing around chit chatting my friend and i decide to walk back to our room to watch the lightning show from there as we sip on tea.
about 10 yards away from the building we look back. and there is a wave of thousands of kids pouring out of the doors. running. screaming. lightning. the works.
i thought we were going to get trampled to death.
so strange. apparently they were merely told to go straight to their cabins.
but i guess what they heard was "RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"
crazy night.
people are crazy.

tomorrow at 3pm is the 1/2 way marker.
not that i'm counting down the days or anything.


peace