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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