Father, You Are King Over the Flood

It was my fourth day in Mexico and it was my first day off. Being that it was a Sunday, almost every person had left the Back2Back campus to go to church. Never seeing the campus so quiet and vacant, I didn't know what to do with myself.

Well, after wandering around trying to find any signs of life on campus for an hour or so, I gave up and thought, "Hey, what a perfect day to just sit and be still before God all day?!". So...I grabbed a chair and took a spot by the pool.  As I looked out towards the mountains, I took a deep breath and prayed that I wouldn't let the month just fly by, but that I would celebrate in each and every moment and truly recognize God.

As I continued praying, I realized that my prayed had quickly turned in to me begging God that He would rid me of all of my distractions back home and that I would be completely open to whatever it was that He wanted to teach me and show me.

Then as I stilled my soul before Him again, I looked out again on to His creation and this phrase kept coming to my mind:
"Cassie, I am King over the flood."

At first I was like, "Huh? Ok God...but uh...random much? I don't know what a FLOOD has to do with anything, but....alright."

Throughout the days this phrase just kept coming to mind over and over again. As I sat and thought about it, I felt strongly that what God was showing me was that all these distractions and situations that kept coming up from back home were my "floods". And if you think about it, no human hand can stop the raging waters of a flood. But yet, that's exactly what I was trying to do with my "floods".

Each week it was a different "flood"- a different situation or distraction that had risen to the surface from back home. And each week I would fail miserably in trying to stop the "waters: of these floods; whether that was just shoving these "floods" and thoughts from these "floods" in to the back of my head, or telling myself that these things weren't a bid deal and didn't matter...either way, on my OWN, I could NOT do it. And every week God stepped in and said "Cassie, I am King over the flood. Trust my hand and let me handle it." And without fail, every time that I handed these issues/"floods" to God, the "waters" from these "floods" lowered and were washed away. Peace would again enter my heart in an overwhelmingly powerful way.

So week by week I had a new personal "flood"and week by week I had to learn that only GOD had power over each and every one. And not only that He had POWER over each and every one, but that He wanted me to give HIM the power in taming my personal "floods".

Well...week 4 came and I had no clue what was in store for me. But by Thursday of week 4, Monterrey was getting a beating from Hurricane Alex. I had never seen anything quite like it. Cars were floating by our bus on the highway, concrete walls were knocking down as though they were paper thin from the forces of the rising waters on the other side, entire villages were washed away, the Back2Back campus was completely underwater, a highway just miles from our campus had literally fallen off in to the river....
it was a FLOOD in full affect. 40 + inches of rain. This was a real, powerful, tangible, and physical FLOOD. Right there, before my eyes, was a physical flood. No longer was I dealing with a personal, intangible "flood". This was the real deal. I had never seen anything like it. I had always seen pictures of the damage that a hurricane or flood can do, but trust me, it's nothing like seeing it and experiencing it right before your eyes. There were moments that I was very scared, so scared that all's I knew to do was cry.

The night that the hurricane hit worst, I literally got about 30 minutes of sleep. But during those 30 minutes, I had a dream. In my dream, scenes from the day were playing over and over in my head. I kept seeing every one shoveling water out of the Guckenberger's front yard. I kept seeing the gate open and waters flood through, looking as though a dam had just burst. I kept hearing groups of people in the distance just crying out to God that He would stop the rain. I kept hearing Todd yelling "KEEP SHOVELING" when everyone else was about to give up hope. I kept hearing the stories from what was going on at the Rio's. In the middle of this dream though, everything stopped. Everything was silenced and was in like slow motion. Then in my dream I looked up to the mountains and could hear God say to me, "Cassie, I am your Father. And I am KING OVER THE FLOOD."

I woke up with such a peace. I had never experienced this type of peace before. People were rushing up to our room at 5 in the morning telling us to gather our passports because word was that we were going to need to be evacuated, but I had peace.

We were told that there were only 2 safe rooms on campus, but I had peace.

We were told that one of the streets on campus was literally like a river, but I had peace.

We were told that if our wall crashed down, the entire LDM would wash away, but I had peace.

We were told that sink holes up to 6 feet deep were forming on campus, but I had peace. Why? Because my Father is King over the flood.