MamaArcher's Blog

Wild Fires

When we lived in Colorado several years ago, we experienced some of the effect of wildfires. There was a large one on the other side of the mountain range. The sky was brown and it was difficult to breath. This past week things got much closer than I would have ever liked to be (and I am here in Texas). There was a wildfire that went through the town of Ordway, Colorado. (you can do a search and read about it) Ordway is a small town of about 1200 residents. We are familiar with this little town because my hubby pastored for several years in a nearby town. We still have some very dear friends who live there.

The fire was so bad that they evacuated the town. Three lives were lost, about 20 homes destroyed, and several other buildings in town. We received an email from these friends about what had happened. Here is a small excerpt of a very long and heartbreaking email…

On Tuesday afternoon the children noticed a large amount of smoke in the
sky coming from the southwest of us. I watched it for a couple of minutes and
grew uneasy….

I told all the children to grab their bags and put in two sets of clothes. I told (son) to pull out both the mini van and the big van from the garage and park them in the driveway, then I told him to grab the CPU from my computer and his Dad’s laptop. I told (daughter) to grab all the pictures from her room (that’s where we scrapbook) and grab as many off the walls as she could. …

Less than 2 minutes after (hubbys’s) last call, he called again and said,
“GET OUT! they are evacuating the entire town you have to go now!”…..

The small children were already in the vehicles with all the bags. The
older children were still helping me grab the last pictures and the “blankies” of
the youngest children. I looked out the back door and saw our field on fire
to the west just on the other side of our duck pond and the fields to the north
were completely engulfed in flames. The smoke was horrendous, we could hardly
breath. I told (daughter) to open the gates on the pens of all her animals. That
was the hardest thing she has ever done in her life. I was sobbing by then. A
neighbor girl, came running in our front door and said “Mrs. M, you have to leave NOW!”, she literally pulled me from the house…..

(Son) was driving the mini van following me. All the other children were with me and we were all just sobbing. (Daughter) for all the animals she cares for and has poured her heart into. (Other son) was crying “I want my Dad, I want my Dad”. It wasn’t just the house we felt we would never return to, it was the home, the memories. It is so hard to express those feelings in words. And then (Other Daughter) began to pray out loud. Her words were so soothing. The crying did not stop completely, but it softened…..

When we reached my sister-in-laws house we were glued to the TV news of course. The
pictures they were showing were horrific. And then we heard that a family with 12
children had lost their home.(THEIR HOME) By then we were just numb. So thankful for our own safety , wondering about all our friends and neighbors……

Later, we decided to try and get back into Ordway and just see for ourselves if the house was still standing and to check on our animals. That was quite a drive. There were downed power lines, some still in the roads. Their were flames just everywhere still. The night was so dark, all you could see were the flashing lights of the emergency vehicles everywhere and the red flames and embers glowing all around us….

The homes of two of our neighbors to the west were completely burned and the barn and corrals of the neighbor to the north were in flames. The house just on the other side of them was also totally destroyed. It was so good to see our home, just standing there in the dark. The fields all around completely scorched. All of our animals were there. In fact they were all in their pens except for the lambs. Their shelter had been completely destroyed and the field where their pen is was burned, so they were in the milk barn where we store the feed. The wind was still terrible and soot and ash was blowing so bad. My eyes burned for 2 days. All the fields on three sides are either blackened or just completely gray with the ash. But the flames just stopped all around our home. But we are so thankful we were spared. If you look at our land, you can see God’s hand of protection.

Please pray for the families in Ordway. I am so thankful for God’s hand of protection where our friends are concerned but there are many families who have lost everything. There is mourning for what was lost and for the lives that were lost. Two that died worked with our friends husband. There is a need for great healing in that community and I ask that you pray for them and for the Christians in that community to minister with the love of Christ.