Miracle Moments
Brought to you by: Molly Maid of Birmingham, mollymaid.com/birmingham
“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” Proverbs 16:9
Before Hurricane Zeta’s arrival, Shocco Springs Baptist Conference Center in Talladega, Ala. was scheduled to host a few groups on campus. With the overall lack of guests so far in 2020, this was a weekend we were all looking forward to. However, the storms came and wrecked those plans. The power went out Wednesday night when trees were down across multiple power lines on our campus as well as the lines feeding to campus. We scrambled staff and moved food to generator-powered freezers, cleared the roads, and made all the preparations possible for the power to be restored quickly, in hopes that our campus would be ready for guests.
Friday morning, I contacted a former board member who is affiliated with Alabama Power Company to see if he could do a little research and give an estimate on when power would be restored. Based on his response, there was no possible way we would be ready to host guests on Friday afternoon. Our power was not restored to central campus until late Saturday night. Sunday morning, as my family was on the way to church, I shared my frustrations with God. We worked so hard to be ready for guests that we desperately needed, and now we couldn’t host them. Why wasn’t the power back on earlier on Friday? WHY?
As I walked into Sunday School, downtrodden, I received the following text that began to open my eyes to His plan and answered my WHY: “Good morning Russell. Do you have 100 beds?” It was from one of my other friends at Alabama Power who works with disaster restoration. What has happened since then has been nothing short of God’s will at work. Beginning Sunday night, we were able to host about 180 linemen from Florida Power and Light. The gentleman heading their group, Michael, came onto our campus frustrated. He was reluctantly pulled in the middle of the afternoon from working in Georgia to move 180 crew, trucks, equipment, and support staff to Talladega. When he arrived, his frustration turned to relief. Instead of the usual logistic problems with multiple hotels, he found that our staff was ready to house all of the linemen at Shocco. As I shared with him about Shocco’s ministry, I discovered that Michael is a true brother in Christ who considers his job with disaster restoration a ministry.
During the week, my staff and I had the opportunity to have true Gospel conversations. The union leader shared that as a kid he had come to Shocco and experienced what we do firsthand. As a result, he and the crew took up a very generous offering to support Shocco’s ministry. I was so frustrated we weren’t able to host the groups we expected during the week, but I realized that if they had been on campus, it would have been nearly impossible for us to serve those incoming linemen. So many times, I take for granted that God’s walking this path with me. When I get out of the way and let God fulfill His plans, it’s so much easier and better!
-Russell Klinner
Executive Director of Shocco Springs Baptist Conference Center
Talladega, Ala.
If you have a Miracle that you would be like to share with us to give hope to others, email [email protected]. Subject Line: Miracle Moments or call 205-408-7150.
