Sylvia Benjamin and her team from Wakarusa Missionary Church in Indiana made the decision to travel across the country and serve fire survivors. Many on the team had never worked on wildfire recovery before and this was an opportunity to learn while they brought comfort and compassion. What they found here surprised them: how could things still be so far behind after three years of recovery work?
We’ve spoken about the challenges the pandemic brought to HCRN’s efforts, but many who are unfamiliar with our work are still so surprised to hear that under 10% of homes lost have been re-permitted; not even rebuilt, just re-permitted to begin rebuilding. This delay isn’t only due to the pandemic, but the sheer scale of the disaster. City and county leaders needed to build up infrastructure before rebuilding could even get started.
Sylvia and her team came to visit during a very emotional week: the 3 year anniversary of the Camp Fire.
When her team arrived, they made their way to Paradise Alliance Church for a community event memorializing the fire. There was BBQ and a cover band and lots and lots of community. Sylvia and other members of her team sat at a table with six Paradise residents, none of whom attended Paradise Alliance Church. The event itself was an opportunity for the whole town to visit their neighbors and share a meal, and these community dinners have been going on since shortly after people were allowed back into the Town of Paradise. The team was so impressed by the church doing their duty to the community and providing that sort of space, not one of preaching out right, but showing the love of Christ through action.
“We prepared our team to be flexible. Whatever [needed] to happen…use me God in whatever way you need me to impact people,” Sylvia prayed before they arrived. And they were incredibly flexible, serving across the community and meeting many different people. Of one interaction, Sylvia said, “they would say I don’t want to talk about [the fire] because today’s the day, but then we had a 20 minute conversation where they talked about it. And that’s what they needed to do to heal.”
Without volunteers, there is no recovery. It’s necessary for those who have suffered great loss to know that they have not been abandoned. It is important that they have a chance to create new relationships with people invested in their recovery. During their week in Paradise, Wakarusa Missionary Church made those connections, created bonds that will be a part of their own growth, but more importantly the continued recovery of the people they served. Sylvia said, “Some of the women I met are now Facebook friends with me and we message back and forth. We’re friends, they know they have someone across the country that is there for them virtually.”
We’re so proud of the recovery work we do as an organization, but we are even more proud of the volunteers who give their time, talent and hearts to see strangers recover.
If you’d like to be a part of Rebuilding Homes and Restoring Lives, contact Travis Cox at [email protected] or call him at 574-333-7728
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