I had the privilege of volunteering with Samaritan’s Purse (SP) again, but this time with the Butte County Fire response effort. Since it’s winter break, Hebron and Caleb were able to come too. Another friend and three other high schoolers accompanied us and made the trip more fun.
As a mom, I am always thinking about what values and
character traits I should help develop in my children. On the top of the list is sacrificial love of
others, just like the way Christ loved us when He was on earth. I have prayed for more opportunities to serve
people with my family. When I found out
that Samaritan’s Purse is coming to Butte County AND they will be here during
Christmas break, I knew I had to bring my family regardless of how inconvenient
it may be. This Christmas break is super
crazy with my sister’s wedding right after it and we have many out-of-town relatives
coming. To squeeze it in, I had to be
creative and find a place to stay in Chico in order to go for two days.
As a high school youth leader, I also wanted to teach the teens to love others as Christ loved us. I also wanted to walk with them in their journey of faith and be a role model to them by being obedient to the teaching of Jesus. I think of these teens as precious gifts that I have the privilege to care for, so I invited them along. I am so glad that some of them joined us. Their excitement to go and willingness to help showed that they take their faith seriously and that they desire to emulate Christ.
Last time at the Santa Rosa fire, God allowed me to find some really meaningful mementoes for the homeowners. Our task is the same this time, which is to sift through all the ashes to hopefully find some meaningful treasures, so I expected to witness similar miracles. Since we were only there for two days, we were only able to serve three homeowners. We were able to find coins, even gold coins, figurines, and some jewelries. But at every site, we were not able to find certain items that the owners really hoped to find, so this can be perceived as less fruitful and exciting. However, God had another lesson in store for me. I had high hopes since Caleb was coming. I wanted God to set his heart on fire for people so that he would go out of his comfort zone for them. But God reminded me that I do not possess the ability to change hearts; only He can do that. All I can do is be the hands and feet of Jesus to pave the way so that He can perform His miracles in His time. During the trip, God made me think over and over again about whether I would be obedient if He just asked me to go dig in the ashes and gave me no immediate results. Then, I thought about how Jesus loved us even when we rejected Him and when He didn’t get our immediate appreciation. I am so loved by Him and so grateful for His mercy in my life that I can only respond by saying, "Yes, Lord. I will dig and sift with all my strength and will leave the results to you."
Just because my team didn’t see any immediate results doesn’t
mean that God wasn’t performing miracles.
In our debriefing time with SP, we found out that other teams witnessed
God at work. One team shared of a
homeowner who felt discouraged, alone, and abandoned regarding her experience
with the fire and lost hope in humanity.
But when SP’s team showed up with 25 people to help her, she was so
touched. She felt loved and supported
and her faith in humanity was restored, which lead her to put her trust in
Jesus and became a Christian. Another
team also expressed that they were not able to find very many things for the
homeowner, but he was able to find closure knowing that he and the team did all
they could to try to recover his things.
He was able to move on and rebuild now.
Many homeowners were very appreciative that people from near and far came
to help them for free. They are also
impressed that the teens would give up their break to volunteer. Just being there and being available to help
is a tangible way of showing the love of Jesus.
I am thankful that we had the strength, health, stamina, and opportunity
to lend a hand.
In the town of Paradise, almost everything was destroyed
with the exception of a few homes and a few churches, including the Paradise
Evangelical-Free Church. This church was
the only building standing in our area and they opened their doors to everyone in
the community, providing water, food, hazmat suits, gloves, masks, and their
bathroom facility. Since the town was all
burnt, there were NO bathroom facilities for us. We were so thankful that this church welcomed
us with open arms. They had warm chili
ready and waiting for us to come in at lunch time. A pastor of a neighboring church was there to
greet us, telling us that the pastor of that church along with all but four
people in their congregation had their homes burnt down. This church is hurting, yet they are still
opening their arms to help others. If
you are able to give, I would encourage you to give to this church. They are collecting donation specifically for
Camp Fire victims.
