Since January, my tasks for Sweetwater have induced stress to varying degrees and each in a unique way. They were also incredibly rewarding. Until now, I haven’t had a moment to give you the details about what I have been learning. This is the story of the day that we took depth measurements on a pond in Proctor, Texas, where I really saw the hand of God.
BATHYMETRIC SURVEY DAY
The chilly early morning was greeted by a beautiful sunrise, a sight that I had missed for a long time. When we all rendezvoused at the Walnut Creek Hunting Club, I met Jordan White, a new Sweetwater volunteer about my age, who drove from Missouri to hang out with us and to help with the survey. David, Jordan, David’s son and his son’s friend, and I gathered where the cabin will be built and thanked God for everything and everyone that brought us to that moment, for His never-failing provision and sovereignty, and for all of the lives that would end up being changed forever on that land in the future. That little gathering kickstarted our field work day, but it still took us a hot minute to get the ball rolling. We didn’t start sampling until around 11 AM, because we were trying to bring to life the flawless paper survey model we had designed on our laptops using aerial imagery overlaid with transect lines.
The first few hours of surveying were spent recording GPS coordinates and taking depth measurements with a survey rod at every 15-foot mark along twine transect lines that stretched across the pond to keep us tracking straight. Just when we felt we were finally getting the hang of it, we hit a snag. Literally. The 500-ft orange twine we were using to mark sampling points along our transects got impossibly tangled on the spool; not a single person had the slightest idea how it had gotten so tangled up or how to start to get it untangled. The look on David’s face read that he was probably thinking something along the same line that I was: that the survey that we had worked so hard to prepare for was not going to get done before the sun went down. In science there is no “winging it”. It is hard to have solid data without strictly following the guidelines of a method that someone far smarter and far wiser than us laid out many years ago, one that has been proven to produce reliable numbers.
We talked through various ways around the problem so that we could still get sound data using the same model that we had created. We prayed that if it was so important that we needed the data to be absolutely perfect, that we would find a clear solution to the problem, and that if it was not absolutely necessary, that the Lord would rid our minds of that idea and He would give us the peace to push forward without worries. A few moments later, David and I conferred over the possibility of eyeballing the rest of the transect lines rather than trying to follow a straight line marked with tape or twine. The scientist in me knew that some data is better than none.
The sun was beginning to sink from the sky as we paddled in our kayaks to the place where we had left off. David had the survey rod, Jordan had the GPS, and I was the data recorder. We spent the next few hours “winging” the rest of the measurements, talking about whatever came to mind, floating in our one-man-ships, and soaking in the Texas mid-winter sunshine – at peace with the situation.
The team after a successful day of sampling
Before we knew it, all the measurements were recorded, and it was time to go home. We packed up, thanked God for a gorgeous and productive day, and left the property with the most beautiful sunset in the rearview mirror.
David took Jordan and I out to eat at Grump’s, the best burger joint in Stephenville. We told stories with the biggest smiles on our faces as we devoured the treasure that is the Queso Burger. Jordan, a stranger to me that morning, began to feel more like an old friend, and David and I got to learn so much about each other that day that couldn’t have been learned in the confines of an office building.
It was a wild day. I definitely saw God’s sovereignty and felt His peace. I was reminded that it is far too easy to get caught up in the perfection of things that we sometimes miss doing the thing at all. January 17th, 2019, was a Philippians 4:6 day – “don’t worry about anything; instead pray about everything; tell God your needs and don’t forget to thank him for his answers. If you do this you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will keep your thoughts and your hearts quiet and at rest as you trust in Christ Jesus.” Something magical becomes reality when you put all of your trust in the Lord to work through a task and see it through to the other side. Often times, there are obvious signs of His hand in the midst of the chaos guiding you exactly where you need to be.
Now, we have a beautiful topographic map display of the pond courtesy of Mrs. Yang Cao, we know what kind of fish can likely live in the depths of that water, and Sweetwater Research has a solid data-backed foundation to transform this pond into a beautiful place of rest—and to think, we almost walked away from it.
The famous queso burger
