Village News

When we had to cancel our Spring on the Farm festival on Victoria Day, I made a point of telling people that when I acknowledge that God has created the weather which causes us to cancel such an event, the cancellation doesn’t upset me. I had to rethink that perspective last weekend. Those of us living in southeastern Manitoba will recall that we experienced a rather violent storm on Saturday evening. After the worst of the storm had passed, I headed over to the museum to check for damage and found our big tent virtually collapsed. The centre poles were still in place but many of the smaller poles around the perimeter were down, and many of the straps anchoring the tent had snapped. Contemplating the damage that the tent had possibly sustained and the work likely required to re-erect it left me feeling somewhat less charitable toward the weather and the God who controls our weather.

As it turned out, we had almost no further wind for the rest of the weekend, so the crumpled tent stayed in place. On Monday morning a team of seven staff and volunteers spent three hours gently coaxing it back to its usual position. There was no visible damage to the tent, and nobody sustained any injuries in the process. I am very thankful and acknowledge the hand of God in this. We also look forward to the day when we will have a permanent building to replace this tent.