When we first visited the scene, mud was the enemy. In the storms that smashed through Southern California at Christmas time an avalanche of mud was born in the hills of the wilderness park just behind the dozen or so homes on Cabrillo Street. This is the neighborhood in Foothill Ranch where our house church meets. We believe ourselves to be called to it and we have responded to this call in a wide variety of ways over the past two years. Now, the mud was changing everything about our call and our response.
(there will be many more photos in future posts)
When we first visited the worst hit home, it was overwhelming. Their back fence and wall had buckled under the mudslide that entirely filled the eight foot deep pool. The heavy goop and dirt was then piled four feet deep against the back of the home before sluicing out the sides toward the street. Homes on both sides were also severely affected. The cleanup would require a large team, heavy equipment and lots of money. The homeowners association struggled to understand the limits of its responsibilities. This was county mud, city mud, not Association mud. The homeowners' insurance company apparently doesn't do mud. The family was literally stuck in the mud without a clue as to how they were going to pay for and remove the liquid hill that had melted into their living space.
For us, there was no hesitation. Our mission to empower everyday people to take the ministry of Jesus to everyday places meant we needed to act. But we are not a large group, even when you count kids and teens. So, we decided to start somewhere with a response - something to say "we're here and we care". Restaurant gift cards were purchased and tucked into handmade cards which were then signed and delivered to fourteen households. The responses to this simple act of kindness were good and the conversations it opened led us to better understand the needs and how we might further respond. That's when the miracles really began!
I have often said that the kingdom of God is "bigger on the inside than it is on the outside". If you could have watched what happened last weekend, you would have understood how true this little phrase is. That's because, in His mercy, God provided resources way beyond anything that could be guessed by looking at our little family of believers. The Goliath of a mudslide was about to feel the impact of a little David of a church.
One of our members, Eric Brown, works in the construction field. After church on the weekend before last, we walked as a group over to the two worst - hit homes and surveyed the damage for ourselves and pledged to respond. Eric led the charge and, before long, had rounded up a Bobcat, dump trucks, and a backhoe. The people who owned this equipment and would run it were practically volunteering to spend a Saturday on rescuing these families from the worst of the mud.
Many more calls were made by Eric and by others of us in the church and a small army of teens, children and grownups with shovels and other implements arrived in shifts to do their part. Others helped with food and assorted support tasks. The families on the receiving end of all this struggled to understand what was going on. What was it that was motivating these people to help them out of a five star jam? The impact was growing. The genius of the gospel was being expressed in some very simple and focused ways and the message of love, care and divine inspiration and provision was rising through the dirt, mud and sandbags in to the hearts of us all. We were getting dirty for God and boy did it feel good!
(To be continued!)
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