Heavenly Thunder at Little Beaver

        While serving as a youth pastor on the Kenei Peninsula in Alaska, we loaded the church van one summer morning with about fifteen high schoolers to make the four plus hour drive north past Anchorage, to Little Beaver campground near Big Lake Alaska. That summer was my first trip to Little Beaver, and it proved to be a memorable one as several hundred teens would descend upon the beautiful acreage of the camp and lake, filling the bunk houses and bringing their rowdy energy to the chapel, cafeteria, and other meeting areas. It was that energy and excitement that opened the door to an experiences with the Lord that week that many of them would never forget.

The first day of the five-day camp allowed the teens to take time to get settled in their rooms and then explore the sprawling camp. A chapel service was announced for that evening along with an optional time of prayer before the service. The chapel was a large Quonset hut shaped structure with a corrugated metal exterior. As I walked across the grounds that evening, seeing teens doing everything from canoeing on the lake to swinging from long rope swings, I did not expect to see many of them taking advantage of the chapel prayer time. 

Curious to see if there were any teens interested in praying before the service, I made my way to the chapel just shortly after the time it was scheduled to be open for prayer.  When I entered the large double doors that opened into the chapel, I was both surprised and blessed to see what I estimated to be about 50 teens already there.  Some stood around in hushed conversations, while others sat quietly in the rows of chairs praying and occasionally looking up and about the chapel.  The fact that they had left the revelry of their peers to come here to pray testified to their sincerity and hunger for something from the Lord. 

It was as I stood at the back of the chapel looking at and praying over this group of earnest young people that the Lord first spoke to me that evening.  I found myself encouraged that so many were here to pray, but also a bit concerned that they seemed so uncertain in their actual pursuit of the Lord in prayer. I even voiced my concern to the Lord, saying “Lord they don’t seem to even know how to come together in prayer”.  This was when the Lord spoke to me, responding to my own plea for the direction of this prayer time. His words were simple and short. He said “Show them how to pray”.   

Upon hearing the Lord's words, I knew I was hearing more than a casual suggestion, He was giving me a firm word of instruction. I was to “show them how to pray”.  My own prayer life involved so many types of prayer that at first I was unsure exactly what I was supposed to do. Was I to call them together and join hands in humble petition for the Lord’s presence?  Was I to instruct them to gather in groups and pray with one another for the upcoming service?  His voice was so clear instructing me to “show them how to pray”, but exactly how I was supposed to do this was not so clear.

The quiet and hushed reverence of the chapel at that time seemed to only amplify the Lord’s words in my heart. I could sense that He was ready to do something special for these young people, and was preparing to do so by honoring their sincere assembling. It was as I prayed for further instruction that the Lord set things in motion that would prove to initiate a time of anointing that would begin that evening and then continue throughout the following days of this camp. It was as if the Lord put His hand on my back and pushed me down that central aisle of the chapel, moving me through and past the dispersed teens.  Once moving, I called out in a loud voice words of praise, glorifying the Lord and thanking him for His presence. My interruption of their reverent silence drew the attention of the teens as I proceeded down the aisle excitedly praising the Lord. As I did so I increasingly sensed the presence of the Holy Spirit and the unction that He was providing. 

       Upon reaching the raised platform area, although I fell to me knees I continued in exaltation and praise. Within minutes I was surrounded by dozens of teens, all praising the Lord and crying out in praise and exultation. We continued in that manner for the next twenty or more minutes, all sensing the exhilarating presence of the Holy Spirit. As our time of inspired prayer continued, the door at the back of the platform area opened and the man who was to be our camp speaker came out. I remember looking up and seeing the surprised look on his face as he witnessed this passionately praying group of young people, which had by then grown to maybe one hundred. 

A group of the teens also noticed our speaker and quickly ran to him, surrounding him and laying hands on him to pray for the Lord’s blessing on his words that night. He too sensed the moving of the Holy Spirit (as he shared with me later) and patiently stood there as dozens of teens prayed over him, soaking in the blessings and anointing that the Lord was bestowing upon him.  When time came for service to begin, the remainder of the campers filled the chapel as our little praying army found their seats. 

After the musicians took their places on the platform and opening prayer was uttered, a time of worship began. It seemed as if the worship that evening, although beginning in a normal and somewhat subdued fashion, soon escalated into a time of passion and intensity.  Several songs into it the entire congregation of young people and leaders were all caught up in an intensity of worship that was clearly far beyond the abilities of the worship leaders or worshippers.  The Holy Spirit was honoring the sincere prayers of those early arrivals, and this would prove to be just the beginning of that experience. 

While this exhilarating time of worship continued, we could tell from the thunder that a storm had gathered outside. The metal roofing seemed to rumble and quake under the influence of the thunder and we all could feel it shaking the building. Rather than hindering the worship, it only seemed to inspire it.  I believe we all knew we were being caught up in an anointed time of worship. When the worship service eventually wound down, one of the youth pastors had quietly gone to the back of the chapel and opened the doors to see the storm that had been thundering and shaking our place of worship.  Upon looking outside, he began motioning to the leaders upon the platform.  Those leaders then directed the attention of all in the chapel to the open back doors. Looking out, we could see the still sunny skies of a typical summer evening in Alaska. There was no evidence of any storm.  The ground was not even wet.

The thunder and shaking we all experienced during our time of worship that night was the doing of the Lord, inhabiting the praises of His people as His word promises.  The worship and preaching that followed that week continued in this same anointed fashion, opening the hearts and minds of many young souls to the powerful reality of God’s presence. As the book of second Chronicles says “they eyes of the Lord go to and fro about the whole earth searching to show Himself strong on behalf of those who will turn their eyes towards Him” .