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Well, I'm back.

It didn't go as expected.

First off, I thought we were going to camp Gruber, an hour and half or so away, to deal with about 2K evacuees. In fact, we were going to Falls Creek Baptist encampment to prepare it for about 35K evacuees. No problem. After we get to going I find out it's about 4 hours away. That's ok too! I was riding in the church van.

So we drive out there and on the way it was fantastic...just exciting as can be! From OKC down to Falls Creek (about a 2 hour drive) it was one Baptist van or bus after another heading down there to help out. Baptists from every part of Oklahoma! Also, Oklahoma Food Bank trucks...18-wheelers...hauling food and the Army National Guard caravaning down there with what looked like medical supply trucks.

So we finally arrived and it's literally bumper to bumper traffic going in...hundreds and hundreds of people. (We had over 50 people in just our group.) But as fast as we were going in, people were coming out! What gives? Why was everyone leaving?

So we finally got up to the gate...the entrance to the encampment and can you guess? FEMA had shut it down to volunteers! Apparently FEMA was overwhelmed with so many volunteers that they asked the BGCO to restrict it to 500 people and they managed to keep it down to 600! We had to turn back!

As we left, we stopped at a fried pie place (that's a big thing here in Oklahoma...fresh homemade fried pies) right at the turn-off to the encampment. And not just us, but several different churches stopped and used the fried pie place bathroom and of course bought fried pies. (The poor elderly fried pie lady was cranking 'em out as fast as she could, with her grown kids helping her like an assembly line and her husband, in a wheel chair, manning the cash register!)

So after everyone went to the bathroom and bought a fried pie (I had a coconut cream fried pie...hot), we all met...all these churches, in the fried pie parking lot. That's when we found out that there were SIXTY busloads of evacuees in route to Falls Creek. Something like 3,000 people coming.

So we started praying, all of us. It was awesome. We prayed for half an hour in that parking lot!

Afterward everyone visited for a bit then we all loaded up in our buses and vans and went home. I'm exhausted from all the driving and feel regret that I didn't actually participate...but I still feel pretty good.