‘The rain falls on the just and the unjust’
Before heading off to the European summer of 2019 I walked into a Storm Season.
On the Monday evening I got a fever that was going through my family. I still had to work the week out as a labourer and couldn’t find a replacement. The fever got progressivly worse. On the Thursday came the unexpected death of a friend. This resulted in a personal encounter with the grim reaper on the Saturday afternoon which is its own ongoing story for another time. By the Friday night, 2 days before take off, I was considering giving my ticket away as I couldn’t mentally see myself completing the long flight. Thankfully in the next two days I managed enough rest to regain the energy to take the Sunday night flight. I had the warmer climate to look forward to. Funnily enough when I finally landed in London on 10 June an unprecedented storm hit London. My good friend Sammy couldn’t pick me up from Heathrow Airport because of the sudden rain and flash flooding on the roads. That night I ate dinner ‘Jason Derulo style’ at a quiet Gino De Campo’s Restaurant in Camden. The storm carried on outside and made for some interesting dessert activity with a lightning and thunder show to match.
What followed was a challenging 2 months fighting off and trying to recover from the fever across Vienna, Crete, mainland Greece, Albania, Lisbon and finally back to London for the last two weeks. This trip was full of trials, tests, battles, losses and major wins. It was far from a holiday and more like an endurance battle. During the challenge of the storm I got to see some of my most powerful breakthroughs in my life which subsequently also brought breakthrough to many others. I stayed faithful to my mission even when feeling horrible and physically exhausted. Thankfully I was gifted with different friends in each country stepping in and up to help support me and keep me going.
In July I met up with my Italian friend Antoniou for a beach mission at Sithonia, Halkidiki, Greece. He had been given a fruitful vision of what was to take place however I was the only person to support him in this. We started off by announcing ourselves and going to war against the spiritual rulers of that area. That night, 10 July, an extraordinary major storm blew in. It peaked right over us at Armenistis Camping & Bungalows (“Armenistis”) and resulted in power outages, 7 deaths & major damage to the three fingers of Halkidiki and surrounding areas.
You can read about it here:
The dry river bed at Armenistis suddenly filled up with water which spilled out flooding the nearby campers and bungalows. Trees fell and tent’s went flying full of personal belongings. We were in the middle of a big BBQ dinner party with many fellow holiday makers and we all got caught off guard. We all had to seek shelter in the nearby toilets. The Italians somehow managed to turn a bad situation into a toilet party not wasting any opportunity for a festivity. The next day we found out that some of the people actually stayed in the toilets all night as their tents had been washed away. As the storm eased Antoniou and I were able to secure safe and dry lodging for a group of English youth campers who’s tents had been flooded out. Their leaders were extremely thankful even if it meant that the boys and girls had to share lodging. Rules are made to be broken. Many Greeks packed up and hit the road back to Thessaloniki. The experts said there was no storm recorded like that in 100 years of record keeping from that area. Antoniou and I got through a lot wet and slightly amused due to the specifics of the lightning show and storm. Others hadn’t faired quite as jovial. The next morning we learnt that trees and branches had caused damage to numerous cars and many of the of the mobile homes. Thankfully everyone at our site was safe but still shaken up as there were some miraculous near misses. The sombre feeling of shock and uneasiness took a few days to subside. People understood they had just been through something quite unusual and unsettling.
During my flight home in August I was contemplating the timing and meaning of all the different events and tests I had been facing. The levels had definitely increased. I was wondering how long this Storm season would continue as I still wasn’t back to 100% health. Upon touchdown at Tullamarine Airport Melbourne I stepped into the Duty Free Shopping area to pickup some specialty gifts. The song that was playing on the overhead speakers in Duty Free was United Kingdom’s entry from the 2018 Eurovision song contest sung by Surie which I knew. It took me a moment to catch on before I just had to stop in my tracks and laugh as the chorus played out:
‘Storms don’t last forever!
Remember! We can hold our hands together through the Storm.
Spread your love!
Give all you got!
Hold your head up
Don’t give up! No! No!
Hey!
Hey brother don’t give up! ‘
Storms they don't last forever...
- DT