Butte County fire respond work with Samaritan's Purse

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. 

https://www.paradiseefc.org/giving

Middle School Advancement

Gold Apple Award is for those who have earned 4.0 GPA the entire time at middle school.

My oldest finished middle school.  For the past two weeks, I can’t help but to stop and look back at his past three years in middle school and a felt a sense of thankfulness to God for all the blessings.  It was like yesterday that I dropped him off to his first day of middle school.  I was so afraid.  I felt like I was releasing him to the wild or dropping him off to a pack of wolves.  He was so little, so innocent, so pure, and so kind.  I was afraid that he would be destroyed, bullied, and perhaps worst yet, ignored.  There was nothing I can do but to pray for him.  I pray for him daily and I meet weekly through Moms in Prayer group to pray for my children.  You see, C is extremely quite and introverted.  

I pray that he would have friends to eat lunch with, that he would see and love people through the lens of the Creator God, that he would learn what is right and wrong, that he would excel academically, that he would be confident in who God created him to be, that he would discover his God given talent, and that other adults would take an interest in his life and be his mentor.  

Jesus is really a loving God who seeks to bless those to trust Him.  Many of my prayers were answered.  C had one faithful friend from elementary school that stuck with him through middle school who appreciated and accepted him for who he is.  But C also made new friends.  C soon realized that kids have different background and may come from difficult family situations.  In our mission trip to AZ, he saw that not all kids live the way we live and some kids don’t have anyone to look after them.  His heart began to soften and he chose to go back this summer to AZ to help.  Through his participation in community service for CJSF, he really enjoyed serving and helping people.  This is huge because he has a hard time talking to people and rather be home than go out.  Through God’s grace, he developed a very strong sense of right and wrong.  He won’t jay walk, use hurtful language, tell white lies, or do things we told him not to.  Academically, he has excelled all on his own achieving 4.0 all three years.  I never once had to help him with any school work.  Well, maybe just asking him if he had homework from time to time.  We also discovered his talent in music.  He is no Mozart, but he is pretty good for his age.  He likes to improvise and play songs his way on the piano.  At age 13, he was able to play in front of church helping on the worship team.  Being in a band, synching with other instruments, transposing to a different key, and improvising at the same time is no easy task.  

How can I not be overwhelmed with thankfulness when God had so graciously blessed him with so many blessings in the middle school?  God is so good.  The Lord has even gone beyond my expectations and helped him grow to be more responsible.  Every morning he prepares breakfast for his siblings and every Wednesday because he got off school early, he picked-up Karissa for me.  He did it without reminder and didn’t even forget once, even though her schedule did change a few times.  The Lord has not answered all of my prayers, but I have faith that in time He will.  He has answered enough to show me that He is at work in C’s life.  

There are many people who excel in areas such as sport, music, academic, or even socially at a very early age.  When we talk about those with such talents, people normally praise the person with exceptional skills and rave about how good they are.  For some of us, including myself, our skills and talents develop slowly, so very slowly.  Most of the time, the development of our skills and talents require overcoming some weaknesses and a dedication to hard work.  In Jesus Christ, we have the power to overcome our weaknesses and turn them into strengths.  When we rely on Jesus and our skills and talents emerge from our weaknesses, all the praise and glory are given to Him.  He can turn a coal into a diamond.  From that perspective, I rather be the one who’s slow at developing her talent so that people can see how amazing my Jesus really is.  I used to wish that my children are child prodigies, but now I appreciate the many small achievements they made as Jesus is molding them into diamonds.  

My dear C, I love you with all my heart.  I am so proud of the young man you are becoming.  Although it is very hard for you to break out of your shell and it’s very uncomfortable, I see that you are making an effort.  God, and your parents, are there with you through every transitions and He will reward you for your faith and sacrifice.  May you love Jesus more and more each day and may He use you to show His love to the world.