The Real Weatherman Written by Marc Thomas Eckel Every evening across our country there is someone on television who tells us what the weather will be for the next day. We commonly refer to this individual as "The Weatherman." Whenever I see one of these forecasters I cannot help but go back several thousand years where a group of men came face to face with "The Real Weatherman." As a storm raged on the sea a small boat rocked back and forth as those on the boat feared for their life. They turned to their leader, their master, who was fast asleep. Jesus stood up and commanded the wind and the waves saying, "Quiet! Be still!" (Mark 4:39) What an amazing experience that must have been! They questioned, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him?" (Mark 4:41). It was just another testimony of the deity of Christ. Two thousand years later, another such experience was about to take place. It was late May 2005. I was making preparations to film the Splat Experience mini-movie project, "The Sinner." I was talking to Eric Miker, who was cast to play our lead actor. We talked about the two days we had scheduled to shoot in early June and he asked one simple question: "What if it rains?" I had been busy for nearly eight months writing the script, casting actors and extras, getting props ready, gathering our crew and staff, and in all the busyness I never stopped to consider this. The entire movie was to be filmed outside on location in downtown Warsaw, Indiana. I thought I'd better check with the weatherman to see what was in the forecast. Several weathermen called for rain for the entire time of the shoot. It was pretty definite - it was going to rain all day Saturday and all day Sunday. One forecaster declared it would rain during the weekend and straight through to the middle of the next week. A clear sunny day was surely out of the question, according the weatherman. I decided we needed to pray! On June 3rd the movie production staff gathered for a dinner meeting. We stopped to pray that the Lord would give us good weather. We prayed confidently. We prayed believing. We felt God had called us to pursue this project for His glory - and we knew He would answer our prayers. Saturday morning came and filming began early. The day was beautiful. It was sunny and 85 degrees. A perfect day to shoot an outside film. We filmed until late and started again early Sunday morning. We were thankful that Sunday was another perfectly sunny day. We couldn't have planned it better. After we filmed our last scene I asked Nathan, our production manager, to be sure we had all the footage we needed. He looked through all his notes and said we had accomplished everything on the schedule. I said, "Let's pray!" Our cast and production crew gathered in a circle and held hands as we proclaimed God's excellency. We thanked Him for holding back the rain. As soon as I finished praying we all looked at each other. I think we all had the same thought at that moment: "Did you feel rain?" Instantly after we finished praying raindrops started to fall. We had constructed a brick wall in one of the alleys where we filmed, and we knew we had to take it down and carry it away, so we all ran to start dismantling it. The sky grew dark and the wind started to blow. The wall supports were taken down and Bill, our lead cameraman, told Eric to stand away from the wall as the strong wind might knock it over onto him. He told me later he prayed at that moment and asked God to give us a few more minutes of peace. Amazingly the alley became quiet. The wind stopped around us, though I could see trees blowing in the wind just feet away from us! And the rain stopped in the alley as well. We all took the wall down and put it on Bill's flatbed trailer. He drove ten miles south where he backed the trailer into one of my barns. As soon as the trailer cleared the barn door the flood gates opened and it started to rain - and it rained harder than usual. It was emphatic! I reflected back to Jesus standing in that boat. It was like he had once again stood over us saying "Quiet! Be still!" He would not allow the rain to continue until we had finished His work! We stood in awe of our God - the Almighty - "The Real Weatherman!" 12.28.05