You are currently subscribed to the PCUSANEWS
email list of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
========================================
This story may be seen here: http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2007/07780.htm
07780 November 30, 2007
San Diego firestorm
Presbyterians pitch in to help sift, pray and counsel after wildfires
by Evan Silverstein Presbyterian News Service
SAN DIEGO - When a wall of fire rushed toward Patricia Creek's house, all she thought of was getting out safely with her husband, Will, and two young daughters, Amanda and Aerin.
The Creeks, residents of San Diego's Rancho Bernardo suburb with ties to a local Presbyterian church, were among thousands of people to lose their homes in the wildfires that ravaged southern California last month.
"We didn't really get any warning," Patricia Creek told the Presbyterian News Service recently, as she surveyed the charred remnants of her one-story home that had a view of the valley and the mountains beyond.
"We could visually see fire coming up our hillside. There was smoke in our home," she recalled of the pre-dawn blaze that swept through the neighborhood Oct. 22. "I had to wake up my kids going, 'I'm sorry, we have to leave our home. I'm really sorry, sweethearts.'"
The Creek's youngest daughter, Amanda, 5, attends preschool at Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church where the family occasionally worships. The preschooler has also attended summer school and Bible school at the church, along with her seven-year-old sister, Aerin.
"We had a big bay window right here in the kitchen," Patricia Creek said, pointing to the blackened spot where the windows once stood. "We looked out and the sky was orange."
Beginning the night of Oct. 20, unusually fierce Santa Ana winds stoked fires that quickly burst into uncontrolled life throughout southern California's dry, hot landscape. By midweek, more than 20 separate blazes formed pockets of fire raging from the Simi Valley northwest of Los Angeles, through San Diego County to the Mexican border.
The flames consumed more than 500,000 acres, destroyed more than 2,000 houses, forced the temporary evacuation of nearly one million people, and have been blamed for at least seven deaths.
In San Diego County, site of the worst fires, it was "extremely scary," Patricia Creek said of the flames, which touched down in some places like tornados - destroying some homes while leaving others standing.
"I was shaking," she said. "The wind was blowing. I could see the fire in the trees and I wasn't sure if it was in the homes."
A few days later, the Creeks, like thousands throughout San Diego County, returned home after mandatory evacuation orders were lifted in various communities.
Some found their residences just as they left them, except for a fine layer of soot and the heavy smell of smoke. Others, like the Creeks, were left with only a memory.
That's when the local Presbyterian church stepped in.
Shortly after the first flames, area Presbyterian churches, clergy, lay members and volunteers mobilized to meet the immediate and long-term needs of wildfire survivors such as the Creeks.
Area Presbyterian churches quickly came together with the Presbytery of San Diego, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) and local leaders to coordinate response plans.
Presbyterian relief workers went into the hardest-hit areas of San Diego to pray, clean up and offer help, joining other churches and Christian relief groups as some of the first to respond to the massive disaster.
Now more than a month after the flames, Presbyterians here continue to help fire survivors from across the religious spectrum clear debris and rebuild their lives.
Church-backed work teams like ones organized by Rancho Bernardo Church have descended on the Creek's burned-out home and other fire-gutted dwellings across San Diego.
"I'm just trying to do anything I can to help victims of the fire," said Jim Flynn, who attends Solana Beach Presbyterian Church in nearby Solana Beach, CA.
Flynn was helping Patricia Creek sift through the ashes of her house with a work team from Rancho Bernardo Presbyterian, searching for precious mementos like pictures or anything else that could be salvaged.
He said the Solana Beach church was providing prayer support for fire survivors, raising relief funds and encouraging members to assist work crews.
Other San Diego churches, such as First Presbyterian Church and Northminster Presbyterian Church, have sent workers to burned-out sites to help.
Village Community Presbyterian Church in Rancho Santa Fe, just north of San Diego, housed firefighters and other emergency responders during the first week of the tragedy.
Some Presbyterian churches have become donation centers for supplies, distributing household basics to area families including bottled water, face masks, bedding and blankets. Also, clothing, personal hygiene kits, diapers, baby food, ground coffee and cleaning supplies.
Churches continue distributing thousands of dollars in gift cards from major retailers such as Target, J.C. Penney and Home Depot so people can buy the clothing, personal, and household items that they need.
Presbyterian clergy and volunteers have led prayer walks through destroyed neighborhoods and formed prayer circles amid the rubble. Some held special services in response to the firestorms that turned much of San Diego County into an inferno.
There's ongoing spiritual and emotional care being offered to distressed survivors who fled their homes leaving everything behind except the clothes they had on.
San Diego Presbytery and PDA have joined area churches in setting up special accounts for financial contributions to the relief effort. So far the presbytery has raised $40,000 in response to the fires.
PDA, which is the disaster-response and relief agency of the PC(USA), has sent the presbytery an additional $40,000 as part of the $71,814 it has raised.
"Our ministry is the ministry of presence," said Rick Turner, a member of PDA's National Response Team, who visited San Diego Presbytery when the fires broke out. "We come in and try to help the Presbyterian churches determine how to respond to the disaster. One of the things that we ask them is what do they need."
Some Presbyterian churches are assigning volunteers as liaisons to walk along side those facing the lengthy process of rebuilding their broken homes and lives.
The rapid Presbyterian response pleases the Rev. Clark Cowden, San Diego Presbytery's new executive presbyter. Cowden, who had just started his third week of leading the presbytery when the fires erupted, said he believes responding to natural disasters is one of the true strengths of Presbyterians.
"I'm really proud of the people here," Cowden said. "I think the response has been fantastic. People have been very quick to see what they can do. Everybody's kind of making their own connections and getting on the phones and saying, 'What can I do and how can we help?'"
Cowden said at least 90 Presbyterian families in San Diego Presbytery lost their homes in the flames. He said about 20 pastors in the presbytery had to temporarily evacuate their homes. No Presbyterian church buildings were damaged in the blaze, though flames came close to some worship sites, according to Cowden.
Located in one of the hardest-hit areas of San Diego, Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church immediately became a hub for care and a leader in the Presbyterian fire response effort.
The 2,000-member church, where at least 67 families lost their homes, quickly implemented a "firestorm response plan" that it developed for Rancho Bernardo and nearby Poway, CA, and Escondido, CA.
During the fires, the church escaped danger despite flames advancing near its campus and destroying more than 300 homes in Rancho Bernardo, the northernmost community in the city of San Diego.
Since then the congregation, which has raised more than $150,000 for its fire response, has provided labor and financial assistance to those whose homes were damaged or completely destroyed in the three communities.
Those receiving help are not required to be members of the congregation or a Presbyterian, with all support provided free of charge.
"We're reaching out to the entire community and beyond, in addition to the 60-plus members of this church who lost their homes," said the Rev. Ray Sparling, an associate pastor at Rancho Bernardo Presbyterian, the largest church in San Diego Presbytery. "This is a huge initiative."
Volunteers from the church's Carpenters Fellowship, who are experienced in light construction and handyman tasks, conducted house-to-house needs assessments throughout the area.
Thanks to donations from members and others, the church continues to distribute work clothes, masks, tarps, boots and tools to assist residents still digging through the rubble of their decimated homes.
Work teams organized by the church have helped sift through the scorched remains of many homes.
"It just gives you chills to be able to find something for them. Just a little something to remember, a little teacup or a piece of jewelry," said Perry Kurtz, who is working with response teams organized by Rancho Bernardo Church.
"One woman was saying, 'I found my wedding band. That's all that mattered to me was my wedding band,'" said Kurtz, a deacon at the church.
A page on the Rancho Bernardo church Web site provides regular updates and information regarding the recovery and a place for homeowners to report property damage and request financial assistance.
A "firestorm relief desk" in the Welcome Center and courtyard of Rancho Bernardo Presbyterian takes in donations and supplies for the response or to help survivors seeking help.
The church has distributed thousands of dollars in donated retail gift cards. It has also put fire survivors in contact with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the American Red Cross and other organizations assisting homeowners.
At least 130 volunteers have signed up to serve as liaisons or advocates for those whose homes burned down, helping survivors with everyday needs from running errands to watching the kids or just being there to talk.
"We're all appreciating that our faith is mostly about relationships," said the Rev. Bruce Humphrey, head of staff at Rancho Bernardo Presbyterian. "It's about our relationship with God. It's about our relationships with each other. None of us are isolated or stranded. We don't have to go through the stress by ourselves."
The church's Fire Recovery Ministry has endorsed an educational series focusing on fire-related subjects, such as working with FEMA or what homeowners should know when selecting a contractor to rebuild their home. Participants will also hear from survivors of earlier fires along with other subjects related to experiencing a disaster.
The classes, which are free and open to the public, started in November and will continue through at least January.
The church has also taken in backpacks stocked with school supplies for students whose families lost everything. A group at the church is making quilt prayer squares featuring "tied in prayer survivor hearts" for those who lost homes.
Volunteers trained in emotional care and medical assistance, mobilized by the church's Caring Ministry, are helping residents with multiple types of emotional and spiritual support.
The Rancho Bernardo congregation is offering prayer support to the community. Names and addresses of those who lost homes were compiled by the church, which distributed maps and directions so people could visit the sites to pray or help with cleanup.
Some residents have phoned the church asking for clergy to bless their destroyed homes.
"What we wanted to do was immediately be able to start giving spiritual and prayerful response and emotional response to people who lost everything and then we wanted to provide materials and people to go back to the homes," said the Rev. Neal Nybo, executive pastor at Rancho Bernardo Presbyterian.
The outpouring of prayers and gestures of kindness from the church is what has meant most to longtime Presbyterians Scott and Patti Hunter, who fled their Rancho Bernardo home in advance of the fire.
A brick arch that framed the Hunter's front door was all that remained standing after flames completely engulfed the couple's 2,500-square-foot, two story house. Their Honda Accord automobile, reduced to a charred lump, sat parked in the driveway.
"I think the biggest thing that has helped us is the power of prayer, just knowing that people were out there," Patti Hunter said. "You feel it. You just know you're surrounded by everyone's prayers."
The Hunters, who plan to rebuild on the same lot, are members of Rancho Bernardo Presbyterian where Patti is director of the preschool. She said students and their families have taken time to offer her supportive hugs, share stories about the fires and pass along notes of encouragement to let her know she's being thought of.
Likewise, Hunter said preschool families who lost homes, regardless of church membership, were receiving the same response from the Rancho Bernardo church as parishioners who suffered from the wildfires.
"What this church has done in this community with this has been amazing. It really has been," Patti Hunter said of Rancho Bernardo Church. "Whether it's going to the grocery store for you or just sitting and listening to you. That community is what has made a difference for us."
Meanwhile, in hard-hit Rancho Santa Fe, Village Community Presbyterian has been another leader in the Presbyterian fire response.
The homes of five of its families were among 55 dwellings lost to the flames in and around Rancho Santa Fe, which is one of the nation's wealthiest communities.
During the first week of the blaze, the 1,000-member church served as a command center for fire crews and support personnel from all over.
Transforming its spacious multipurpose fellowship center into a makeshift shelter, the church provided firefighters with food, cots and air mattresses. There were also televisions for watching the disaster coverage and showers for gritty crews returning from long hours on the fire lines.
The Rev. Jack Baca, the church's pastor, estimated that 40 to 50 fire units from across the state and around the country filed through the church during the disaster.
Baca believes several-hundred firefighters slept, had meals and showered at Village Community Church, which also hosted National Guardsmen in addition to local police and sheriff's officers.
"You welcome them," Baca said of the response crews. "I look at the church as really just an extension of a home. This is a church home. This is like our family living room. And if there's somebody outside that needs something that you can help with then you open it up for them. So that's all we did. It's what anybody would do."
Goods to support the firefighters also poured into Village Church: everything from batteries, drinks and bottles of Advil to throat lozenges, ChapStick and Visine to candy bars, soap and toothpaste.
Cards from area residents containing messages of appreciation for emergency crews adorned the walls of the fellowship center.
A paper banner hung inside that said in big colorful letters "Thank you firefighters."
Notes from children scribbled on the tapestry included "Thank You Firefighters! Thanks for saving everyone and our homes!" Another stated "You make the world go round."
"The church opening its doors really provided an enormous amount of relief for the firefighters," said Nicholas G. Pavone, fire chief of the Rancho Santa Fe Fire Department. "Some of those firefighters had been on the lines for over 60 hours and the church really came through and provided an enormous amount of support that otherwise we would not have had in the area."
Village Church, which came dangerously close to being burned along with its manse, was the primary check-in point for returning evacuees to report damage and sign up for city services.
The Rancho Santa Fe church continues to help those who came back to ashes instead of homes with clearing debris and rebounding from the destruction.
Pastors, deacons, elders and Stephen ministers, trained in one-to-one care, are providing emotional and spiritual support to area residents affected by the wildfires.
"They'll be shepherding them for the next 6, 12, 24 months, whatever it takes," Baca told the Presbyterian News Service. "We'll be working long-term with these folks in terms of their grief recovery as well as just their spiritual and physical recovery from the fires."
Baca and other church leaders remain in regular contact with impacted parishioners and other affected residents through phone calls and personal visits. The church has also sent clergy to fire-wrecked homes to lead prayer circles and conduct prayer walks through neighborhoods.
"Never underestimate the power of prayer to unify people, especially when people pray in groups," said the Rev. Jan Farley, associate pastor at Village Community Presbyterian Church. "When people gather and pray together there's something about a single mindedness that really pulls people together."
A growing list of volunteers from Village Church are working as advocates for those who lost everything, helping ease their burden by assisting with random chores or by providing personal encouragement.
Target and Visa retail gift cards from Village Presbyterian continue going to those in need throughout the San Diego area. The church is tackling questions of grief that residents still have, such as Why me? Why not me? What now?
"The church's response could not have been better," said Peggy Bobertz, a member of Village Church whose home was claimed by the wildfires. "This is the best place in the world as far as outreach from the church and from the whole community. And the aid that they gave the fire department while they were here was phenomenal."
The church has raised more than $100,000 for fire-relief efforts, about 20 percent of which has already been distributed, Baca estimated.
The pastor said Village Church members quickly found temporary rental housing while others relocated to second homes and beach condos, or borrowed friends' second homes.
Because its members have the means to get on with their lives, the church has focused its financial resources on helping survivors in less affluent parts of San Diego County, Baca said.
Village Church is especially concerned about families whose homes have been completely destroyed, who didn't have insurance, who may have lost their jobs or who were already struggling financially. Baca said his congregation will continue working closely with church partners in affected communities to ensure these families receive the support they need to get back on their feet.
When the fires broke out, the church coordinated its response plan with local leaders, fire and police officials, area schools, the Rancho Santa Fe Foundation, the Rancho Santa Fe Homeowners Association, a local community center and several area service organizations.
Leaders at Village Church remain in regular contact with these groups to coordinate long-term relief efforts and to organize community appreciation events to thank first responders.
Being part of a faith community has made all the difference in the world to Kimberley Dorey, a member of Village Presbyterian whose home burned down.
"This is why you have a church family," Dorey said, while standing amid the rubble of her destroyed home in Rancho Santa Fe. "I knew I needed to turn to the church and they stepped into it full-force and it was great. I don't know how a person who's not part of a church family could get through something like this otherwise."
========================================
You are currently subscribed to the PCUSANEWS
email list of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
To unsubscribe, send a blank message to
mailto:PCUSANEWS-unsubscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org.
To update your email address, send your old email address and your new one to mailto:PCUSANEWS-request@halak.pcusa.org.
For questions or comments, send an email to mailto:PCUSANEWS-request@halak.pcusa.org.
To learn more, visit http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 100 Witherspoon Street Louisville, KY 40202 (888) 728-7228