I got an emergency phone call at school from my brother saying the field behind our house and our back yard were on fire. Also, the wind was blowing toward our house and there were no fire fighters there! I was so scared! How could I not be?! This summer has been so dry and Wednesday was a windy day on top of that! To make a long story short our house survived. The fire made it within 50 yards of our back porch which was way to close for me. So, needless to say Wednesday trumped Monday and Tuesday by far! We were so exhausted because of the emotional strain of the events of the day but even though we were scared to death I was grateful for what God had done. God gave me the "shake up" that I needed. I was letting myself focus on all the small little things that had went wrong the last 2 days. Were they disappointing? Yes, they were upsetting, especially because they were two things that we were specifically praying for. But, I got a glimpse of how much worse it could be. We very easily could have lost our home that we just finished building in April. Sometimes it feels like I can't feel or see God working in my life and I think that is what I had been feeling. Like maybe my prayers weren't getting to heaven and God wasn't hearing me. The way things worked out on Wednesday showed me what I already knew, that God is with us always. Even in the times when we can't feel his presence. There are things that happened Wednesday that non believers would say are coincidence but as a Christian we know there is no such thing...or in the words of Mother Teresa "When I pray coincidences happen and when I stop, they don't". I feel the need to list them....
1. My brother was on his way back to work from lunch when he saw the smoke. He is not a worrier but "something" just told him to go check on our house. If you ask my brother he will tell you it was God telling him and I believe that with all my heart.
2. Jason and I had just built a fire pit in the back corner of our yard and planted some grass seed around the area. We had 2 garden hoses connected and stretched out there to water the seed. So, when my brother got there and he was the only one. He was able to just turn the hose on and it was already where he needed it to be. Do you know how long it would have taken him to find more hoses and connect them together to reach out there?
3. Over 50 acres burned that day and 11 counties responded to the fire. We had the red cross and Office of Emergency Management there also and guess where they set up their head quarters? In my back yard! I was so thankful to have them there because I felt safer.
4. Fire fighters were there for approximately 6 hours. They had to leave because there were 2 other fires that had started. There was one fire truck with one fire fighter left. He is friends with my brother and so he sat down with us on the back porch to rest for a few minutes before he left. He probably sat there 20 minutes. He was getting in his truck to leave and turned on his sirens and honked the horn for my niece Lily to hear it when he took off across the back yard. I was confused for a min. but quickly saw there was a small rekindle behind our neighbors yard to the left of us. While he was dousing those flames we spotted big flames behind the neighbors yard to the right of us! Those required help of another fire truck to get under control. What if he would have left right when the other trucks left? What if he didn't sit down and talk to my brother for awhile?
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| This is where the burn line stops and you can see how close it is to our house. |
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| The field just behind our house as you can see there's nothing left but ashes. |
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| Our back yard |
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