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2010 Elizabeth Lodge Report
The Elizabeth Lodge is an 8 bedroom facility that was built and then given to Autumn Ridge Church to use as a retreat center. It is located on a hill, on 40 acres of property outside of Zumbro Falls, in Wabasha County. It takes many people to maintain the lodge and the grounds to make it a wonderful place to go to study, or plan, hike or sit by a campfire and enjoy the surroundings of God’s creation. Even the 30 minute drive to the lodge is lovely any time of the year.
This past year, over 1150 guests visited the lodge. There were 85 different events held there which varied from small group retreats, ministry planning events and dinners as well as individual one day retreats. It has also been used to house some of our missionaries as well as other speakers.
On Thursday, September 23rd, 2010 I arrived at the lodge early to make sure the roads weren’t washed away following the heavy rains over the previous 24 hours. My plan was to be there overnight through Saturday hosting first my visitation team and then a weekend focused on prayer. It was safe all the way to the lodge. So safe in fact, that I didn’t realize the extent of the flooding until I made a quick trip to Zumbro Falls Friday morning to get gas. That is when I saw that the town was under water to the second story windows!
Although the lodge still had electricity, there was not phone or internet service. I truly had time to be alone with God. Realizing that God had a different plan for the weekend, I started praying that He would direct the folks that needed help to the lodge. Even though I was able to get word out with one couple that stopped by, no one else came. Late Friday night I was in tears before God confessing the horrible pride in my own life as well as in the life of our church: what kind of testimony were we that no one would come for help in such a time of disaster.
Early Saturday morning, as the water was retreating back to normal Zumbro River proportions, I watched the clouds travel one way as the waves on “the lake” traveled the opposite direction. I was so amazed by God’s power and realized I was starting to hear the birds sing again. The fog was lifting and in its place was a bright red arc starting on the path where I watched the water rise. At first I thought it was a rainbow, but yet it was all red and an arc that just ended in the sky. It was so unusual that I knew it was a greeting from God that He heard my prayers and He would take care of everything. I went inside and tried to draw the scene when I heard a car drive up.
A woman very quietly stepped out and when I went to her, she asked if I would at all be willing to help. I started to tear up and told her I had been praying that someone would know I was there and had beds and food. It became an emotional time for both of us as she told me she hadn’t wanted us to build the lodge and I told her we just wanted to be their neighbors.
Her response is etched in my brain… “The flood has changed all that.”
She left and her husband drove up in a 4 wheeler within 5 minutes. I think he had been waiting around the gate at the entrance!
He said he knew we ladies would want to take care of the town, but we would have to trust him on this. He assured us that all the families that were displaced were with other family or in a shelter in Lake City, but they needed us to house the National Guard. I didn’t have any idea of what that meant, but I was about to find out!
The next hours and days changed continually…instead of housing a max. of 16 overnight, there were 53. Fire Chiefs from around the state rotated in, 3-5 at a time taking turns giving objective advice on what was needed. The first decision they made was that fire crews from neighboring communities needed to come to take the emergency calls for Zumbro Valley. For seven days, in addition to the guard and chiefs, the lodge was home to a fire team from Rochester, then Waseca and finally Brooklyn Park.
God continually provided food and resources for every need that came up-often before we even knew it was a need. As the 40 guard members would switch their 12 hour shifts, I would hear some of the stories that were happening beyond our 40 acres.
One day they said that the State Health department was in town to check on where the food was coming from. I knew we weren’t a licensed kitchen, but they assured me that because we were now a United States Army Base, and a licensed Army Chef was part of the guard, they couldn’t come and check on us!
Yes, when I found that out, I had him make one of the midnight dinners; but you can imagine my relief that God had Paul McDonald and a whole team from Autumn Ridge ready to take over the meals to town when the numbers grew from 60 twice a day to 300, 3 times a day!
As I went back to my journal and photos this week, I have been humbled again to recognize the power of God and the work of His Holy Spirit. My prayer during that time was from Psalm 124, that if the Lord was on our side, the flood would not engulf us.
The Lodge has been limited the past two years by the Laws that were set up for us by what I coined “the 3 C’s”. Today I must confess that we broke the County Rules, the City Rules and the Church Rules for the Lodge, but we kept the 10 Commandments!
Last week we sang a song that to me is the Elizabeth Lodge song for 2010:
“My Chains are gone, I’ve been set free!
My God, my Savior has ransomed me.
AND LIKE A FLOOD His mercy rains,
unending love, Amazing Grace.”
My prayers for the future of Elizabeth Lodge are that we would continue to have an outreach in that community and neighborhood.
The flood waters uprooted a massive tree, which when traveling in the flood knocked down and landed on part of the fence that surrounds the lodge. I hope that that new opening, where a barrier once stood, becomes a symbol. The lodge may be a place for solitude, but not of isolation. It provides opportunities for retreat and relaxation, but also to spread the Gospel, to Love God and Serve the People in our own backyard.