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SAN DIEGO, Calif. (ABP) -- With 11 of
the 20 fires that burned through Southern California contained,
churches are turning their attention to disaster relief, while
investigators are setting their sights on justice, since officials
have announced that at least two of fires were arson.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told
reporters Oct. 27 that the culprits would not sleep soundly because
“we are right behind you.”
“I want everyone to understand that
we will hunt down the people that are responsible for that and we
will arrest them and we will prosecute them to the fullest extent of
the law…” he said. “Believe me, we will not fail.”
But while Schwarzenegger and his
investigators track down the arsonists, church leaders like Rick
Warren are encouraging congregants to focus on the victims.
In an Oct. 28 letter to members of
Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., Warren urged prayer for
the firefighters, many of whom are Saddleback members. He also asked
congregants to attend a weekend testimony session from prominent
author Ken Blanchard, whose house in Rancho Bernardo, Calif., burned
down.
Saddleback, one of the nation's
largest congregations, also is scheduling church services Nov. 3 and
4 that will publicly honor California’s fire fighters.
Warren expressed his grief for those
who had lost their homes and praised the cooperation of the church’s
3,500 small groups in offering their homes and resources to people
displaced by the fires.
“As the fires have raged this week,
I’ve once again seen the undeniable importance and benefit of being
a part of a small group,” Warren wrote. “While people without a
church home or a small group were sent to evacuation centers across
Southern California … I kept hearing story after story of Saddleback
small groups opening their homes to fellow group members who had to
evacuate.
“I also witnessed small groups
actually fighting fires together when a group member’s home was
threatened by fire! That, my friends, is what small groups are all
about! Your group carries you through a crisis!”
All told, the fires have burned more
than 400,000 acres from Mexico to northern Los Angeles County.
Almost 1,700 homes had been destroyed by Oct. 29, with total damages
of more than $1 billion in San Diego County alone.
Fourteen people have died from causes
linked to the fires, with at least 85 injured, 61 of them
firefighters. There is a $250,000 reward for information leading to
the arrest of the arsonists.
The 120-acre Saddleback campus went
untouched by the flames, although more than 28,000 acres have burned
in the Saddleback Valley area. Warren said in his letter that the
church’s fire-evacuation center had become a clearinghouse for
supplies and even a holding place for family pets and horses.
Workers at Saddleback’s center also
fed hundreds of fire fighters for several days during the fire,
helped place evacuated families into homes of members, deployed
trained volunteer chaplains to other evacuation sites, and sent
clean-up crews to some of the hardest hit areas in San Diego.
It’s the eighth national or
international disaster for which the church has mobilized, so the
disaster teams are quite organized and effective as first
responders, Warren said.
With weekly attendances of 15,000 or
more, the Southern Baptist-affiliated Saddleback makes a huge impact
in disaster-relief efforts. But other area churches have contributed
as well.
First Baptist Church in Newhall,
Calif., has established three kitchen units for serving more than
700 meals daily. First Baptist Church of San Diego has set up a
collection site for donations. Even Highland Baptist Church in Waco,
Texas, has sent funds and well-wishes to the family of a Baylor
University student who lost her home in the fire.
Charles Ray, the national coordinator
of disaster response for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, arrived
in San Diego Oct. 29. Ray will “make contacts with potential
partners and put together a plan for long-term rebuilding efforts,”
said Lance Wallace, CBF’s director of communications.
And the California Southern Baptist
Convention mobilized two other field kitchens in the San Diego
Padres’ Petco Park. Between the two units, more than 1,000 total
volunteers prepared 10,000 meals daily, CBN News reported. One
hundred of the workers are from the Southern Baptist Convention’s
North American Mission Board.
Terry Barone, a spokesman for the
California convention, told CBN News that Southern Baptists have
experience dealing with disasters, especially to earthquakes and
other natural disasters.
“We served well over a million meals
during the Northridge earthquake in the ’90s, and more than 2
million meals during Katrina,” he said. “This is something we're
prepared for, we know how to do it, and we're just ready to serve
when we can.”
By Oct. 30, 200 Southern Baptists
from Nevada, California and Arizona will be working at
meal-preparation sites in San Diego, San Bernardino, and Ramona,
Calif., Barone told Associated Baptist Press.
As of Oct. 26, no Southern Baptist
churches were destroyed, Barone said. Unfortunately, Rancho Bernardo
Baptist Church, which belongs to the Baptist General Conference and
the Southwest Baptist Conference, did burn.
“I hope folks don't feel angry at God
but closer to him,” the church's pastor, Dan Maxton, told the San
Diego Union-Tribune. Two families in the church lost their homes
to the fire.
“God walks with you through the
storm,” Maxton told the paper. “Don't focus on the storm but on
faith.”
Churchgoers had done just that. Upon
returning to the neighborhood after being evacuated, church leaders
raised a banner over the church that said, “Free water, snacks,
photocopying.” Someone donated $100 to buy church volunteers lunch,
while others provided childcare for families needing to do
heavy-duty clean-up on their home.
Maxton, who has been keeping
congregants up-to-date on a church blog, led Sunday worship services
on another campus. The church still plans to hold an Oct. 31 harvest
festival and open its pre-school that day as well.
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