Mark Holbrook, for many years a leading layman in the Grace Church of Orange, California (Mike Sciarra, pastor), recently reflected on the danger and damage to his Yorba Linda home in the southern California wildfires. Holbrook is the president and CEO of the Evangelical Christian Credit Union. Here is an excerpt–to read the entire article, click here.
Last month my wife and I were visiting our daughter, Rebekah, who teaches in a missionary school in the Dominican Republic. We had just returned from visiting families in the poorest section of town, humbled that people with so little could love the Lord so much, when Rebekah’s cell phone rang. She quickly handed me the phone, and I heard my son, Matthew, yelling, “There’s fire all around. You have about one minute. What do you want us to grab?”
So began a drama that lasted through the night as we waited for the next update. At one point my brother called to say he was watching our neighbor’s home on television when the news crew panned to two guys on our roof battling a firestorm of flaming embers with garden hoses.
As we waited in Rebekah’s little living room 3,000 miles away, we prayed mostly two prayers: “Lord, please keep everyone safe,” and, “If you choose to take our home, that will be OK.” Well, our home did catch fire—briefly. Through some heroic work on the part of our son, son-in-law, a friend from church, and some anonymous police officers, our house was saved.