We’d already decided to spend last weekend in Santa Rosa when Mindy started looking for places where we could volunteer while we were there. It’s a good thing that she had a hard time finding a place that would let us help -- there are many organizations working on many projects, but most had more than enough volunteers for the Saturday we were available.
Eventually she remembered that Samaritan’s Purse, the international relief organization, was working through The Bridge Church in Santa Rosa (not connected with The Bridge Fresno), and she applied for Saturday morning training and work with other one-day volunteers. Due to a breakdown in marital communications (I’m sure it only happens to us), I had given up on volunteering and arranged for us to meet friends for lunch.
Nevertheless, Mindy went to the training early Saturday morning, if only to apologize that she couldn’t go out with the groups. She got permission sit in on the orientation that prepared volunteers for the work they’d be doing that day.
The group watched a video that prepared them to work at sites where homes had so recently been. They were reminded to wear protective gear, which would be provided on-site. They were trained to avoid nails and to be considerate of the homeowners, who would also be on the property. Then they were assigned to groups to go to the various area sites. Mindy had noticed a few people with The Bridge Church t-shirts, and when she asked if they were part of the church, she found herself talking with Eli Contreras, the church’s worship and young adults pastor. A few minutes later, that group was excited to find out they’d be working at the home of friends from The Bridge Church.
After the volunteers left to go to their work sites, Mindy came back to fetch me. We drove into the hills of the Fountaingrove area on the northeast side of Santa Rosa, where we were introduced to one of the property’s owners who was looking at what had been saved and what had been lost to the fire.
The house was gone except for a few stone walls, but the tree house in an oak tree was fine. Their beehives had survived the fire, but the smoke might have weakened the bees that were left, allowing yellowjackets to invade and take over the hives. She graciously allowed us to take pictures of the work on her property (Samaritan’s Purse requires volunteers to get permission for photos, and common courtesy does too).
Mindy introduced me to Eli, who was unrecognizable in Tyvek coverall and breathing mask. As we watched, Keith, the site supervisor from Samaritan’s Purse, advised people to keep away from the area around a damaged wall. That area would be cordoned off to prevent accidental injury.
People were hauling metal conduit to a pile for recycling, and everyone seemed to be in good (but not jovial) spirits. Though we were in a beautiful hilltop on a beautiful day, a sense of loss hung over the morning. Later, when some of the debris had been hauled away, the group expected to help the owners sift through the ruins of the house for belongings that might have survived the firestorm. They also hoped to catch sight of the family's cat, who'd been missing since the night of the fire.
That night, when we went to the Saturday evening worship service at The Bridge Church, we couldn’t help noticing the big Samaritan’s Purse trailer parked in the lot. We heard that the trailers had been built for NASCAR and were equipped with tools and shop materials as well as supplies for use on disaster sites.
The Bridge Church meets at the Santa Rosa Alliance Church on Fulton Road (near, but outside one of the fire evacuation areas). The Bridge was a two-location church, with one congregation meeting in the Larkfield neighborhood of northeast Santa Rosa at a Seventh Day Adventist School. The congregation had kept the equipment they set up every week in a trailer stored in the school’s parking lot, and the school was destroyed in the fire. The church assumed all their equipment was lost along with the meeting site, but when, after the fires, they were allowed back onsite, they found their trailer in perfect condition by a wall on the edge of the parking lot (we saw the trailer in the Alliance Church parking lot that evening).
The Saturday evening service began promptly at 5:00 pm with music followed by a greeting time (with a timer), more singing, then the sermon. Pastor Billy Andre was beginning a series, “Different,” on the Apostle Peter’s first letter.
In his introduction, Billy mentioned that the letter was written to a church that was enduring great persecution under the Emperor Nero (famed for fiddling while Rome burned), and the Bible verses that especially struck me were from I Peter 1 -- the quite relevant verses 6 & 7: “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Billy said people of Sonoma County are suffering immensely, but not only from the fires. As is true in any time, in any place, people have struggles with health, relationships, and finances. These trials, he said, are a test of our faith, but our God is a God who can redeem painful situations.
The message was perhaps more powerful because Pastor Andre, like many in his congregation, is going through a trial of his own. His family’s home was destroyed in the firestorm, and they’re staying in their fourth residence in a month. He told about going to where his home used to be to sift through the ashes. He and his wife hoped, more than anything else, to find their original wedding rings, which had been in a dish on their dresser.
They did find them. They also found something that surprised them: a picture of Jesus. It wasn’t from a book they’d owned, and they had no idea where it came from, but there it was in the ashes where their shed had been: a reminder that God was with them.
The service closed with the song “I Have This Hope” by Tenth Avenue North, which includes the lyrics, “I have this hope in the depth of my soul: in the flood or the fire, You’re with me and You won’t let go.”
Many of my friends lost their homes in the fires, including Mike, who I've known since elementary school. I remember biking to his house to hunt with BB guns...I accidentally shot him once. This week, his wife Carol posted on Facebook, "From this day, we move forward. Samaritan's Purse showed up today with a team of twenty people to help us sift. Beauty from ashes. God has a good plan for our family."
I trust also that God has a good plan for the people of Sonoma County, and I'm grateful that Samaritan's Purse -- and the churches in the community -- are working with them to help find it out.
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