It’s hard to describe the Texas Hill Country without experiencing it firsthand.
For example: Need a strong cellphone signal during an emergency? Try that in a canyon with walls of solid rock on both sides, four- to five-stories tall. How dark does it get in the complex nooks and crannies of the Hill Country when the electricity has been knocked out?
Of course, the Hill Country has long been known as a textbook example of a region in which flash floods are common.
The hills are not mountains, but they are more than small, sharp-edged plateaus. There are trees and thickets of brush, but everything is defined by the rocky terrain and water. There were terrible flash floods in the 1980s and ‘90s and reporters may want to check out what safety measures were approved after those disasters.
The timing for this latest drama could not have been worse. Another of the flood-related Times reports noted that the people gathered in the Hill Country for the 4th of July were:
… victims of the cruelest perfect storm: a severe, stalled weather cell wringing out over a remote river basin in midsummer holiday, all in the dark of night.
Had this one come 12 hours before or after, when the light of day would have allowed people to see what was happening before it was too late, there would likely have been far fewer fatalities. A 1932 flood of similar scope struck the region during midday. It ripped away six cabins at Camp Mystic, but no campers died.
During the podcast, host Todd Wilken and I discussed many questions linked to the future of small, independent religious and secular camps in the Hill Country and in other isolated, beautiful parts of America. They face complex legal and economic challenges, even as their work, according to key experts, is becoming more important during America’s mental-health crisis, which is hitting children especially hard.
Here at Rational Sheep, readers will want to check out this post, which includes interesting commentary from the After Babel network:
Camps and scouting vs. “screens culture”?
Local congregations should become more active in real-life (analog) adventures — right now
I will end with one other passage from the Times feature about the history of Camp Mystic.
Texas Monthly once called Camp Mystic “a near-flawless training ground for archetypal Texas women.” That archetype has changed over the years, but at Camp Mystic it includes both strength and femininity. Activities include basketball, fishing and annual “war canoe” races, but also cheerleading and a class called “Beauty Inside and Out” that features spa-style treatments and discussions on etiquette. Campers wear white clothing to nondenominational Protestant worship services on Sundays. (The camp also offers Mass for Catholic campers.)
Camp bonds may be sustaining the Texas women and men connected to the tragedy. But they still lack information.
In that void, many people connected to the camp were sharing a variation of its logo with the message “Praying for Mystic,” as well as the Bible verse John 1:5: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Please watch the viral video at the top of this post. It’s incredibly moving, for many obvious reasons, as noted in this Rod Dreher commentary: “Youths Praising God In The Flood.”
As these girls were finally able to be evacuated — after waters receded on two-lane roads nearby — they passed through the destruction in parts of their campground. The sounds of their shock are obvious. But the girls also responded by singing camp songs and hymns they had learned.
I caught a fragment of a campfire classic that became popular when I was in high school, written by pianist Kurt Kaiser, a Christian-music legend who became a friend while my wife and I were at Baylor. In fact, Kaiser played all the music during our wedding, including a beautiful, improvised solo based on Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” — especially the lovely sunset finale.
One of the songs that these brave girl’s are singing is Kaiser’s “Pass It On.” Here are the final lines of that song, which can be heard early in the evacuation video:
I wish for you my friend
This happiness that I’ve found
You can depend on Him
It matters not where you’re boundI’ll shout it from the mountain top (Praise God!)
I want my world to know
The Lord of love has come to me
I want to pass it on
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