The Plumber

Thank you all so much for your prayers that camp would be a success for campers and counselors! God answered them in so many unexpected and surprising ways. I am always surprised that God always surprises me. Point to ponder. I think the first person to comment that my group had “the nicest cabin” was one of our camp coordinators as she was doing initial cabin inspections to make sure everything was in tip-top shape with our accommodations. She said she thought it was her favorite cabin and noted the quaint fireplace and lovely curtains. She also pointed out a negative aspect in that one of the two toilets in the bathrooms was clogged and non-operational. She said she would let someone know and let us settle in and get acquainted and left.

Now, who knows maybe had she walked in and said, “This place is a dump don't you ladies want to find a nicer cabin.” Perhaps we might have seen our cabin in a negative light, but thankfully our place glowed with positivity. She had arrived just as myself and the six other girls were unloading our luggage and making our own initial appraisals, therefore her opinion may have shaped our outlook. First impressions are delicate and formed by so many factors.

After she walked out the door I said something along the lines of, “Ladies, did you hear that, she said she thought our cabin was the nicest, so God blessed us with a nice cabin! By the second night and after the fourth person had said they thought our cabin was the nicest I was worried that the girls might get a little haughty and prideful -sadly a feeling I am all to familiar with and know it needs to be squelched. During our devotions time I explained to them how I send emails to people and that in my last one I requested people to ask God to bless us and our time at camp. I felt that God had indeed answered these prayers and that one of the ways He had done so was by choosing for us one of the nicest cabins but more importantly it was the best cabin for us.

I said, “Now ladies you have seen how big this place is, it is huge, there are hundreds of cabins, and I don't think that our cabin is necessarily the nicest cabin in this whole entire place but what I do believe is that this is the best cabin for us as a group. It is already abundantly clear that we all share my problem of poor time management, (granted they are 9-11 yrs old), and thankfully our cabin couldn't be any closer to the main meeting places. So the Lord helped us out and gave us a conveniently located one because He doesn't want us to always be late. I think because people were praying for us we have not only a nice cabin but what is even better we have a great group of girls inside the cabin.” We all know it is not just the surface things that count but we must look beyond that to what is really important.

How to make an impression on impressionable girls—my advice be genuine, be you and don't try and hide from the plumber. Back to the first day and the clogged toilet which of course we had all forgotten about after treasure hunts and other fun outdoor activities. I decided I wanted to take a quick shower before our evening meeting and grabbed my towel and dashed into the bathroom. While putting mass quantities of conditioner in my hair I hear a knock on the door and my 15 yr. Co-counselor sticks her head in and shyly says my name. I wonder what must be up since I have only left the girls for maybe four minutes if that... “Ummm, well errr I don't know what to do the plumber is here to fix the toilet.” I stick my head out and look at her with a deer in the headlights look calculating everything, this is not the Ritz where they are waiting on you with five star service, I can not tell him to come back later. I said, “Well, I guess I need to get out, right?” She said, “Um, I think you HAVE to.” I don't know what to do and start panicking, any/all decisions and logical thought is impossible. I decide I have to rinse out all of the conditioner from my hair because otherwise it is just going to make a mess dripping everywhere.

Meanwhile the floor is a swampland due to the shower curtain being opened and everything on the floor is soaked. So I hustle out sopping wet in only my towel and I don't even think I dried off because I was worrying that I was taking forever rinsing the conditioner out of my hair. For those of you that don't have extremely curly hair, you will never understand just how much conditioner is my friend and how thankful I am of its inception, creation and usefulness, otherwise I would have dreadlocks. I brought to camp a very large dark green towel, thankfully, but still... This is a Christian camp and I guarantee even the plumber is a Christian because I think even in his aged and weathered face I would have caught a blush if he hadn't spun around so fast to face the wall. I have no idea what he mumbled but I took it to mean he was “sorry” for intruding would be my guess.

I was already fully flustered and then to see him react that way and then basically stand in the corner by the door facing the wall so that he wasn't looking at me standing there soaking the carpet in my towel, I was speechless. I know, never happens to me. I must have blushed because I am a blusher. And meanwhile, Oh yeah, meanwhile...there are six faces riveted on the drama and intrigue being played out before them because our little cabin has only two rooms. One being the bathroom which I so grandly just exited with flourish and flushes, actually it is the lack of flush which has brought our new actor on the scene. If I had a lack of logical thought while washing my hair thankfully heaven must have helped me here, I have no memory really what words truly if there were actual English language words shared between the plumber and I at this point. I think it was more incoherent mumblings of pure embarrassment on both parts. Truly.

I do remember suddenly recovering my wits once he had gone in the bathroom and I realized I still couldn't get dressed until he had finished and left completely because there was no where for me to do so in the other one room I was now occupying. I asked through the door how long it was going to take.

I don't know about you but I laugh when I am uncomfortable. The girls were all giggles and so we had a good laugh about the whole thing, with me in my towel and plumber man plunging away. The whole rest of our time at camp everything turned into being about the plumber. Instead of fire drills we had plumber drills, every knock on the door was “the plumbers here”, lights out consisted of screaming plumber at the top of their lungs and running. Other campers were quizzed “have you seen the plumber?” and random people were asked if they had ever “plumbed”--upon which “AHHH you're a plumber” would be screamed in their face. The camp had all kinds of cool activities like daring rock climbing, zip lines and all kinds of water activities that we all had a blast doing. On the last day when I asked two of the girls in my cabin what was their favorite thing about camp they both simultaneously replied “The Plumber.”

I have no idea what all we chatted about while I hung out with the ladies in my towel waiting for the plumber to finish in swampland. I just remembered being honest in saying that it was embarrassing and then we all laughed and laughed. After he finished he walked out of the bathroom and the girls quited down watching and I walked a little ways towards him and he touched the brim of his cap and said, “Ma'am, you have one of the nicest cabins,” and walked out the door.
I asked the girls after I had gotten dressed what had happened while I was in the shower and they told me one of the girls had approached him and said, “Hi, you look nice what's your name?” He had told her his name was Mike. So I am not exactly sure which of God's blessings Mike the plumber was referring to, how nice our cabin looked inside or how nice the people inside were. Either way I think you played a part with your prayers in bringing about both of these blessings. So thank you from the bottom of my heart! And thank you Lord, for Mike the plumber where ever he is for bringing so much joy to our time at camp, please bless him in an extra special way today and bless everyone who is a servant for you who goes unnoticed or unappreciated. Have you ever plumbed? Either way, God bless you, too!
Heaven helped me 7/5/08
Love Always,
A*