At the Mercy of the Wind (Prayer Request)

If you live in So Cal or have access to the news you know about the rampant fires. SOOO many people have lost their homes, etc. Even if they have not had to evacuate the air quality is really horrible and many of my friends/family have said there are just ashes covering their yards. Please be praying for those that have been affected! (This first picture was taken by my brother, Brian (or SIL, Kara), from their front yard in Simi Valley. Simi is where my parents, brother Kevin & many other extended family members live)!

The fires got INCREDIBLY close to my alma mater, Pepperdine. Thankfully, from an email I received,

"the [faculty] pool house next to the hot tub that we all use to sneak into was burned down and aside from some Palm Trees on Banosky Drive being burnt, that seemed to be the extent of the damage on campus."

(These three pictures are of faculty condos & the very top of Pepperdine's campus).

After seeing these pictures it is amazing to me that the campus suffered so little damage.

The church that I attended in college was right across the highway from Pepperdine. Unfortunately, the church building did not survive this fire, and can greatly use our prayers. Here is an exerpt from an email I got in this regards:

"We at Malibu Pres can use your prayers! During this whole process the Lord has put our church at the forefront of the world - what a great opportunity to minister! While this is a time of mourning, our pastor, Greg Hughes said it best on CNN, 'today we lost a building, thank God we did not lose our church'. Roots run deep as many worshiped and ministered there during college. Some of us were married and had our kids baptized there. During the week, there are over 90 children that go to preschool there (including my kids), so there is a lot that has been affected, from Sunday worship to activities and programs from Monday - Saturday. With all that - it is a big loss, logistically and with memories. However, that the building stood for 60 years and served its purpose and did its job well. The outpouring of other churches and organizations in Malibu to offer us use of their facilities has been amazing. While it is still time to mourn, we look forward to help build an even better building to serve the Lord for the next 60 years."

Here's some CNN video footage of an interview with the minister of MPC (it starts out with a short commercial, sorry about that).

Anyone who knows me knows that So Cal has a special place in my heart. It is still very much home & it is very hard to watch from afar what is going on there. Please pray for this region of our country!!!