"You Drive...I'll Pray"

Just a little background, Ben, you know Ben my awesome cousin, came up to Carolina for the weekend.  We had already decided we were going to go to Cameron Village this afternoon to eat lunch.While we had heard about the possibility of dangerous weather today, it was only a little overcast when we left the hill and we said we would keep ourselves updated with the weather conditions.

So everything was going just fine.  When we got to Cameron Village it was a little overcast but nothing we didn't expect.  We had a yummy lunch at Cafe Carolina (I got a pastry, of course! and half of mine.) and when we came out it had begun to rain but we still weren't too concerned.  Ben dropped me off to pick up some shoes at a store, and when I came out the bottom really fell out! While it was a pretty intense rain, we decided to drive back to Carolina because we had no clue how bad it would become...


We also didn't know that when Ben's parents called us and told us to take shelter that a tornado had just touched down in downtown Raleigh...just a few streets over from where we were at the time! At the time we didn't realize why they were so persistent about us waiting to drive back, but now we know...Sorry for the scare Uncle Hal and Aunt Joni! No wonder you were worried about us....

 Taken In the Millbrook area- close to where we were...clueless.

Once we decided to jump back on 40 and head back to UNC, we realized this storm was no joke.  We never saw a funnel cloud, but we experienced the scariest rain storm I have ever been through.  If drivers weren't pulled over on the side of the road, they had their blinkers on and were driving like Miss. Daisey...rightfully so, of course!  As soon as we got on 40 we thought about exiting because of how quickly the rain had intensified but we couldn't even see the exit! I am usually carefree in situations like this, especially when someone else is "driving" but when we couldn't see the road or the exits, I became a tad bit frightened and said to Ben, "You drive, I'll pray!"  That's exactly what we did...props to Ben on his smooth and cautious driving skills. All those years playing Jeff Gordon and you being Brooke Gordon when we were little really paid off. The scariness continued and we almost pulled over but right after we decided not to, God answered those prayers and the rain began to taper off!  The closer we got to Chapel Hill, the ran began to stop and the sun began to shine. Once we were finally back, there was not a cloud in the sky! Instead of the rain and storms we had seen, Chapel Hill looked like this...

 

Despite our obliviousness, I was reminded that there is never a dull moment when I am with Ben, I need to add WRAL weather alerts to my phone, and God is always with us through the storms...both the literal and figurative.

"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze."

Isaiah 43:2