Seeds of Hope

 It was 17 degrees out and my toes were numb.  I was watching the sun peek over the horizon and the rays begin to bring the slightest warmth to frozen ash and blackened trees.  There was still some smoke arising in different places towards the sky.

What makes 9 out of 10 houses burn down to the foundation while another stands tall and unscathed?What makes a life survive where others are taken away?

I was serving in Gatlinburg Saturday with Grant and one of his friends to help in the fire recovery for families.  Serving on the front line is something that is an adventure and also a way to give support to those who need it.  It's a way to bring Hope to those who need it most.  Hope has many origins...it can be as simple as a smile and listening to a survival story....it can be as simple as shoveling the ash and removing everything out of the home for those in need by just serving.

I've been to the front line for hurricane relief and flood relief...never to fire relief work.

 What starts the same is upon arrival to the site the work looks daunting and larger than what can be attainable.

It's not really about the work though...that always gets accomplished...

It's about a place for the owner to share their story...telling our stories validates who we are and the scars we have endured. It also help us begin to heal.

Debbie started sharing and while I didn't want to crowd her with so many pressing in to listen...but I wanted to hear her story--to honor what she had endured and valiantly survived.  The fire was closing in all around her home.  She stated that only two homes on her road were occupied that week--an older neighbor across the street and herself.  She was scared...She felt she was running out of time so she got in the car and the power garage door wouldn't open...so she threw it in reverse and smashed through the door--quite brilliantly.

There was burning debris all around especially pieces of metal roofing coming off and wrapping around trees or hitting the road.  Power lines were down all around...The roads on that mountain are narrow and windy...she was driving too quickly in her haste swerved and rolled the car down an embankment and onto its roof.

She managed to regain her composure, pulled herself out of the car window and ran back a block to the neighbor's home looking for help or a way to get down the mountain.  The neighbor was gone.  She was out in the dead end culdesac looking for help.  She dialed 911--guess what?  She was told they had no way to get to her at this point. They told her she was on her own.

She said she threw water from her water bottle on herself and scooped up her cat and she stretched her arms out and around the animal to provide protection.  She watched the house explode in the intense heat.  Somehow--miraculously the fire moved on and she survived with minimal burns.  It's amazing she is alive today and she is grateful. As she stated "I'm nobody special...I didn't do anything to deserve this."

It's an interesting conclusion to her story.  The stories we tell state a lot about who we are and who we think we are.

Later in the day I was talking with her mother Betty.  I stated I was sorry for her loss (the home) and without batting an eye --looked straight squarely into my eyes and with a big grin stated "we have everything that matters--our daughter is with us."

Somehow a rescue mission had given them $100.00 as part of the rescue and housing them in the shelter.  Do you know what they did with that money?  They wanted to take the rescue team out for dinner for all of the work and kindness show to them. Here were people that had lost so much financially and yet they were giving....

Scooping out ash 3' deep down to the foundation and pulling out all of the metal and spikes, nails...it was work but it was a good work--the kind that leaves me with a tiredness that something good happened there that neither side will soon forget.

I was looking at the outline of a wobbly chimney and a foundation and some cinder blocks...a complete loss....but Betty had it right...they had their daughter alive and life is precious...there was no price for that recovery..it was priceless.

The images are burned into my mind forever...out of respect for these families and the lives lost in other stories connected to these fires--I will not post pictures or cheapen the horror they went through.

I disagree with Debbie's analysis at the end of her story though.  That she survived is amazing and now that she has--she is destined and now challenged to write the next chapter of her own story--and to make it originate out of that place where she is...grateful and thankful.

Hope planted some new seeds today...who is to say what will grow from that?!