In August 2015, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore was hit with a "storm of the century," while Tonya and her family were enjoying the area.
I want to share with you as our family celebrates the 10-year anniversary of feeling God’s immediate and unmistakable presence.
We were vacationing around Sleeping Bear Dunes. We ate lunch and made afternoon plans around predicted rain showers. The dads stayed fishing on a lake, and the moms/kids went to hike the Dune Climb, a dune trail more than 2 miles long.
It’s not the “steep one,” but a dune that stretches from a parking lot to Lake Michigan. Before we headed out, my uncle warned us we would reach a sign that said, “mile to go, do not proceed unless you have proper equipment/stamina.” He advised us to turn back at that sign.
While parking we looked at the weather app to gauge the next storm's arrival. It was 2 p.m. and the next rain was expected at 4 p.m.
At 2:55 p.m., we made it to the sign and turned around. At that moment, we looked at the sky and noticed the storm was headed our way — FAST. While walking back, I asked Max, then age 9, to give me his shirt so I could wrap my camera in it as we had no protective gear on us — just swimsuits and random T-shirts on a couple of the kids. He obediently took off his shirt and gave it to me.
Within a minute of wrapping the camera and tucking it in my coverup, the weather started. Rain, wind and hail hit all at once. Max and Jackson were 25 feet in front of us, and we immediately lost visibility of them. We shouted for them to run and meet us at the car. We held onto the hands of Monty, then 7, and Addison, then 8, as we ran. It felt like a thousand needles hitting our backs. Did I mention that we were on a sand dune?
I kept a tight hold of Monty’s hand as with every wind gust he would burst forward. While running, I wondered if we should stop and I should cover him with my body. It was hard to know what to do, and we were over a mile from any shelter. Monty surged ahead with the wind the moment my grip loosened, and my girlfriend Heidi caught him and continued to run.
A fun detail to mention was that I was “keeper of the keys.” When the storm started, I had the presence of mind every 10 feet to check that they were still there in my incredibly shallow pockets.
Just as Monty ran out of my grip, I checked and no longer felt the keys. I stopped. I figured that if I put my head down to protect it from the sand and looked back that I would find the keys. I went to perform this maneuver, but the wind, rain and hail were so violently strong I could not turn against them. At this point, the first prayer was uttered — only He could find keys in sand dunes.
The wind and hail subsided as we arrived at the car, leaving us with torrential rain as we assessed the situation. I told Heidi about the lost keys, and that Max and Jackson were not near the car. At this point, we huddled and prayed — please protect Max and Jackson, help us to find them, and oh yes, the keys!
We ran to a nearby gift shop to see if our boys were sheltered there. There were about 70 people seeking safety in the dark gift shop, but not Max and Jackson. They also weren’t in the nearby restroom. The rain had calmed down and was lightly falling as we again prayed in that bathroom about our lost boys and keys.
Desperate to find them, we split up. Heidi went up on the dune to be sure they weren't there. I went car to car asking people if they had seen them and describing them. After 10 cars I headed to the ranger station in the parking lot. The ranger was kind as I described our missing boys and added that we would need help as we had also lost our keys. His response, “There are a lot of people that need help right now, we won’t be able to get a locksmith into the park to help you tonight,” hit me hard. It was at that point I started to process what we had just lived through. I thanked him and went back to the row of cars to continue my hunt for Max and Jackson.
As I moved through the cars a woman named Jen suddenly came up to me and asked, “Are you looking for two boys?” I said, “Yes!” She assured me that they were safe and sheltered in their Subaru during the storm.
It was 27 frantic minutes between losing visibility of the boys and being reunited with them.
Our angel, Jen, along with others, wrapped us in towels as we gathered by the restrooms and prayed a thanksgiving prayer that we found Max and Jackson, and we were all safe. We also mentioned the keys.
As we caught our breath, Jen encouraged us to come home with her as she had lasagna waiting in the oven and we could meet up with our husbands at her place and make a plan from there. Her offer of hospitality brought relief, and we said yes!
While heading to Jen’s car, a park ranger walked up to me and asked, “Are you the one who lost your keys?” I said “Yes.” He asked me to describe them as he pulled them from his pocket!
While leaving the parking lot our usually chatty group was silent, in complete awe of what God had just done for us. He was with us through the storm and cared about details like the hassle of getting keys made while on vacation.
We stopped counting downed trees at 300. They call what we lived through on August 2, 2015, a “storm of the century,” complete with 90-miles-per-hour straight line winds. There were books and T-shirts made about it.
Prayer is powerful! God has mighty ways that he wants to show you He is there for you, and that it is unmistakably Him!
Tonya Snyder is a Michigangster through and through. When she isn't out exploring the beauty and wonder in the world, she is working as the program administrator for high school STEM students and raising Max and Monty with her husband Chris.
