forced evacuation

I’m spending a lot of time right now in Central Ohio, helping a huge television ministry as executive producer. It’s demanding, hard and rewarding but tonight it ramped up to a whole new level.

After dinner with my buddy and Avid editor extrodinaire Mark, I went back to the office to finish writing a script. Finally I pushed send in Outlook and drove through a nasty thunderstorm to the hotel where I am on a first name basis with all of the registration desk people.

Got ready for bed, don’t worry — no details — and the phone rings. Not my cell, the room phone. I knew it wasn’t 7am yet. There was a stinkin’ tornado sighted. (guess that weird horn noise wasn’t someone’s car alarm)

So, here I am, forcibly evacuated from my rented bed, sitting in a first-floor hallway with my pillow (how is that supposed to protect me?) and blogging.  The family across from me is really worried. A bunch of contractors are ticked because they have an early call. A really young couple is passing through on their honeymoon and think this is a cruel joke. They all mention I should be doing almost anything besides this.

And they’re right… I’ll be right back.

The National Weather Service has dropped the tornado warning, and we can leave the hallway and go back to our rooms. Praise God.  I have shot and produced stories from hurricanes, earthquakes, typhoons and volcanos but I’ve never experienced a tornado, and I’m not in a rush to add it to my highlight reel.

Oh, what did I do when I paused in the blog writing process?  I asked the night manager to let me into the breakfast room and he allowed me to take a bunch of snacks.  I then went from person to person and let them pick something to munch on, and talked a moment, and told them that I believed God was going to take care of us.

The contractors took the food and went back to complaining. The newly weds smiled and disappeared under their blanket again. The family were very happy and appreciated the snack and asked me to pray.

I have been bad about posting often, and I was enjoying the chance to write, but as believers our main job is not to blog (or preach, or design, or raise money…) it is to be Christ to the world.