Fire

For many years I have taught my children that even when you think what you are going through it tough (and my kids have been through some tough times in their lives) there is always someone who has suffered more than you.  This lesson became quite evident to all of us Wednesday night.  Just as we were preparing for bed, my older daughters heard an explosion and came to tell me they thought our neighbors house was on fire.  I followed them downstairs to confirm this (we both live on 20 acres so our houses are not very close) and sure enough as I came into our living room, huge rolling flames and smoke were rising from their house.  I called 911 and as I was talking with the operator, our neighbors called in the fire themselves.  Apparently they were sleeping when it started, so we saw it first since it started in the garage which faces our house.  We are thankful to God that He brought them both out alive.  As the fire was raging we heard explosions which turns out to be ammunition exploding in their garage.  Unfortunately both of their cars were in their garage so not only was their house completely destroyed but both of their cars and all 3 of their cats as well.  As can be imagined they lost everything and are devastated.  And then of course there must be that awful contingent of society that is now showing up in their driveway with pickup trucks (after the owner and fire chiefs are not here), driving around the rubble and shouting all sorts of really crass and heartless things...

We were blessed by God in a big way during all of this, as we are surrounded by woods and the fire could have gotten really out of hand.  We left our property pretty quickly in case this were going to happen.  The firefighters (6-8 trucks) contained the fire rapidly and God blessed us by diverting the smoke in a different direction.  We were very concerned that our animals would suffer from the intense smoke but it didn't come our direction at all.  Thanks be to God for this and prayers please for our neighbors as they attempt to recover from this catastrophe.