thank you for praying

Thanks to all who prayed for my family and our neighborhood this week. I am extremely grateful. We are now safely back in our home ... which is still standing ... PRAISE THE LORD!! It is a miracle that our home was not destroyed. The entire hill surrounding our home is black and more than 130 homes in our neighborhood were burned. Please continue to pray for our neighbors who are cleaning, rebuilding and looking for comfort during this difficult time.

During my evacuation, I stayed with a family in Oceanside (thank you Roy family!!) On Tuesday morning, we had a time of worship and prayer with our pastors who had also been evacuated to their home. During that prayer time, the Lord gave Pastor Jerry a word from Genesis 50:20 - "...you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive". He reminded us that although the crisis our city is facing is bad, God is good and He is working through this situation and we believe MANY will be saved. God is not the author of fire, but He will work through it. You can help our city by praying these three points as suggested by my pastor ...

FIRE -- Pray that the fire of God falls on San Diego. This represents cleansing, purifying and preparing people to respond to God.

SMOKE -- Pray for the cloud of God's presence and His glory to be evident in our city.

DISPLACEMENT -- Pray that people will be placed in God's house ... that people will be saved and placed in churces across San Diego.

Thank for for praying!! The effective, fervent prayer of the righteous avails much. I have already heard incredible testimonies from my neighborhood ... our prayers are moving mountains.


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wednesday photos

We stopped by our neighborhood on Wednesday afternoon after hearing that it was possible to get inside through a police escort. All surrounding neighborhoods were back in their homes, but ours was guarded at every entrance. We went to three different entrances and were told we could not enter ... not even to pick up medication. Most people had a good attitude, although they were anxious to get in. And the police were very kind a courteous. You can see the police and military presence in these two photos below.

After being told we could not enter our neighborhood, we drove around neighboring communities and saw just how close the fire came to SO many homes. As you can see in the first picture, the fires burned most of the hills surrounding our neighborhood (this was taken just 3 miles from our home). Bottom picture is a brand new Christian school that they also managed to save despite fire burning close.

photos from our neighborhood

Most of these photos were taken about 1 mile from my home where a majority of homes were burned in our neighborhood (click on them for larger images). These are all pictures of the aftermath of the flames ... I never actually saw any flames. Just a warning that some of these photos are really devastating ... it was quite difficult and emotional to walk through the streets, but I was encouraged by some of the incredible stories and testimonies we heard along the way. As you look at the photos, I encourage you to pray for the family they represent. Psalm 29 reads -- "The LORD will give strength to His people; The LORD will bless His people with peace."


If you are familiar with my neighborhood, this picture is taken on the corner of Duenda and Luz. You can see Fiona's home the background (behind the street sign). The following pictures are the view from Fiona's backyard. Tragically, her neighbor's home burned but only right up to their fence. And you can see the soot and ash left in their pool.

As you may have seen on CNN, Aguamiel was one of the most devastated streets in our neighborhood ... 27 homes burned and many that did not burn have severe smoke damage. In the second picture you can see the hills that burned all around Westwood. On the other side of those hills is Lake Hodges - a lake that separates our neighborhood from the city of Escondido. The fire whipped through Escondido, over the hills and right into Westwood. My friend Belinda and her family miraculously got out of Westwood early Monday morning. They were called by a relative and turned on the TV to find out if they needed to evacuate ... then their cable cut off and they realized the fire was close. They jumped in their cars and headed down the road. Miraculously, their home was saved and as you can see in the third photo, the flames came right into their backyard.

I know the family who lives in the home in the distance. Miraculously, their home is still standing despite some damage. Praise God!!

In the distance you can see their closet with unburned coats!

There are news crews from all over the country ...

A large plastic trash can melted into a small puddle.

Here are news crews reporting in the midst of the rubble. You can see a helicopter in the distance and the cross on the hill at Battle Mountain. The neighborhood on the other side of the mountain was the other hardest-hit neighborhood in Rancho Bernardo.

My dad and I stopped and talked to the man who lives in the house on the left ... He is the original owner of the home and has lived there for over 30 years. There are 6 or 7 houses on this cul-de-sac and only two survived. The man showed us the "line of fire" which came right down his fence and actually burned half of that tree in his front yard ... everything to the right of that line was burned. He and his neighbors say they also got out at the last minute, not knowing the fires were right down the street. Everyone we talked to said they had NO idea the fire was coming toward our neighborhood (in fact, most were sleeping around 4am or 5am when the fire actually started burning homes). Thank you Lord that everyone got out safely!!

You can see the melted metal on the ground from the mustang.

That's my dad taking photos at the entrance of Westwood.

my story of evacuation

Sunday afternoon my parents left for Ventura to attend a conference while my brother was ministering to people in Thailand. I was home for the evening and had invited Nicole to spend the evening with me. Around 6pm, Jael was evacuated from Ramona and came to our home. By midnight, we heard the fires were headed toward San Pasqual Valley and The Wild Animal Park. Nicole got some sleep while Jael and I laid awake in bed watching the news until 2:30am. By that time, I knew that parts of Escondido had been evacuted but had NO idea the fires were coming toward Rancho Bernardo. I woke up again at 4am and decided to start packing the house while I still had time. By 4:30am, we received a phone call (possibly the reverse 911) but there was no one on the other line. I woke up Nicole and the three of us began packing. I also called my parents and asked them what I should pack ... I think they were shocked ... little did we know that the fire was already entering our neighborhood. Nicole began packing our cars around 6am while I kept pulling stuff out of our closests. At that point, people will driving through the neighborhood honking their horns and Nicole could hear police sirens in the distance and police on megaphones telling people to evacuate. We jumped in our cars just before 7am and began our looooong travel through the town. We took a back road that led us away from the fires (hoping it would be a quick drive to the freeway). What normally takes 15-20min to get to the freeway, ended up taking us 3 HOURS!!! At that point, the news was reporting that "Westwood" (my neighborhood) was burning. I was in shock ... it was very surreal. We were trying to get to Temecula to my grandma's home, but the freeways were closed and we made it only as far as Oceanside (took 5 hours!). We spent the next few days reading over lists of addresses of homes that had burned ... our home was never listed. Today we are back in our home and our heart goes out to our many neighbors who have lost their homes. Our thoughts and prayers are with them. We walked through the neighborhood this week, took some photos (below) and heard some incredible stories from those who fled just in time.

what the in the world...??

About two weeks ago, I purchased a delicious green bell pepper at Vons (along with my other groceries) and promptly cut it open for dinner that evening. I cut right down the middle of the pepper, opened it up to remove the seeds and then realized there was a fatty green WORM in my pepper!! And if that wasn't bad enough, I cut the worm in half when I cut the pepper - sick! The weirdest thing is that there were no holes leading into the pepper, so he must have been dwelling in there since birth from his sick larvae/egg thingy. I don't mind worms, but I was really caught off guard and I basically lost my appetite ...well, my appetite for peppers - I think make a quesadilla :)

Unfortunately, I had a similar experience this evening. I was making myself a lunch for tomorrow and had a craving for raspberries. I pulled out my little container of berries, popped off the lid and realized there was a dead BEETLE inside - sick! What in the world is happening? Why are there bugs in my food!?! Oh well, that won't stop me from eating!

this woman is my hero ...

for a little chuckle

check out this Japanese "exercise" video on Robbie's myspace