Home Destroyed by Fire

This week brought an unexpected event into our lives. Our neighbor’s home was struck by lightning. I wanted to share the story because I believe it’s a great reminder of how life can change in an instant. One moment our neighbors were safe in their home and in a flash of lightning, their lives were changed. The interior of what was once a beautiful home was turned into ashes. Thankfully, all five people made it out safely, but they were only able to save a very few possessions.

On Tuesday evening of this week, a lightning storm passed over Oviedo. I was playing Uno with the children when Kim asked me  to move into the kitchen because the lightning strikes began to hit all around us. Shortly after we moved, at about 7 pm, we heard a lightening strike followed by a loud “Boom!”. I knew immediately that one of our neighbor’s home was struck and said so to Kim. After a few minutes she looked out the window and called me over. There was an immense amount of smoke pouring from a home across a small pond in the center of the neighborhood. It was so thick that we could not tell which house was burning.

After a surreal 15 minutes had passed, we saw the roof burst into flames. One after another we heard emergency vehicles begin to roll into the neighborhood with sirens blaring. They kept coming, and coming, and coming. At one point we counted 8 pump engines from three townships, several paramedic vehicles, and an assortment of about 10 sheriff and emergency vehicles.

The vehicles stretched from one side of the neighborhood to the other. These vehicles were followed by news crews from 4 different stations, arriving near the end of the 2 hour long fire.

The last hotspot from the fire was not extinguished until 6 am the next morning. From the exterior of the home the damage does not look terribly bad, but Kim was inside, helping the family sort through the ashes and she said there is nothing left.

The whole incident made me consider my own possessions. We even talked about it as a family and what we would take if our home caught fire. I thought about what was really important to me. It’s easy to say that my home and possessions are not that important, but what would my reaction be if this was my home? Would I be able to walk away and say that “the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away” as Job did? I’m not so sure it would be that easy.

I will continue to pray as I always do for the Lord’s protection on my family and my home, however, I also pray that God will enable me to hold everything loosely. We truly can not anticipate what will happen tomorrow, but we can be sure that God is in control and that He will give us the strength to face whatever it is.

God bless,

John

“Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.” Mark 11:23-24

Equipment delivery next week

Kim dropped off a laptop and digital camera at Spirit of Joy Lutheran church this week. The mission team will be packing those items next week and will be arriving in Burundi, Africa on June 17th. Pastor Jeff Linman will meet Jean Marie on Saturday to hand over the laptop and camera. Jean Marie will be using the camera to capture photos of the plantation. He will use the laptop to write reports on the plantation progress.

I heard from Michael in Costa Rica this week. They had a delay in getting the Jatropha cuttings, but they have them and will be shipping any day now. If all goes well, they should arrive in Burundi next week. Ed Acosta, the plantation owner, added an additional 200 cuttings, so we should have 500 total. That will be a good start for our testing.

We’ve also been working on the funds that will be used to pay for the land, irrigation system and operating expenses. I had to wait for Spirit of Joy to approve the funds for use on this project since we are donating them through their church. Their board approved the funds, so I expect to be able to wire them by the end of next week.

I was in Seattle last week for a Division Manager’s meeting, so it’s been a couple of weeks since my last update. My Jatropha is growing well, with some interesting variation in the 4 cuttings. One is still nearly dormant, but the other three are doing well. We replanted them in larger pots because they were outgrowing the old pots. You can see the new pots below.

I included a close up of the largest plants. Note that the new growth is now over twice the original cutting length in the plant below. The two tallest plants are 11” inches high (~28 cm). 

John

“Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.” Mark 11:23-24