Okanagan churches affected by summer of fires

When planning a series of summer sermons on the various “falls” people experience, Mark Burch, pastor of Willow Park MB Church in Kelowna, B.C., included a message about the hopeful side of being “on the bottom.” In it, he would “focus on God’s ability to pull us through the fires of life.”

That theme landed on the weekend Kelowna was coping with “the fires of life” in a very literal way. More than 26,000 people had been evacuated because of the huge, erratic forest fire threatening the community; 248 houses had already been lost to the inferno.

Photo courtesy of Castanet

Burch chose Isaiah 43 as his text, where God says in verses 3 and 4, “When you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God . . .”

In the midst of emotions that “run the spectrum,” listeners were reminded that the God of creation says, “You are precious to me – I love you.”

Mennonite Brethren congregations in the Okanagan Valley have been deeply affected, along with the rest of their communities, by the province’s worst fire season in 50 years. They have also responded to its opportunities to provide comfort and practical help.

One family of Valleyview Bible Church, Kamloops, may have to move because the lumber mill where he was employed burnt down. Several families in Willow Park Church in Kelowna lost homes. Many were evacuated. Liz Stewart tells of attending a prayer meeting about the fire situation at the church Thursday evening, Aug. 21, only to hear upon their returning home the warning sirens and the instructions to leave “right now”. Each of their four children, she says, was allowed to take only one special item along. (“It was interesting,” she remarks, “to see what the kids chose.”)

One of the most poignant losses in the Mennonite community was the house of Harry and Gertrude Loewen. The former Chair of Mennonite Studies at the University of Winnipeg lost an irreplaceable resource: his large working library. “It is one thing to preach and teach and give advice to people, as I did all my life,” he shared in their church the following Sunday, “it is quite another to experience helplessness, vulnerability, and loss yourself.”

Loewen said they had been overwhelmed with the love and support shown them. “We have faith,” he wrote in an e-mail, “and are strong, with loving people and our dear Lord at our side.”

The youth group of Valleyview Bible Church spent several days helping one of the devastated communities near Kamloops. Youth pastor Mike Roth says, “When the fires broke out, Kamloops was overrun with fleeing people from Barriere, Sun Peaks, Pritchard, Chase, Louis Creek. We wondered if there was any way the church could help these hurting people, and specifically if there was a way the youth could be involved.”

When it was announced that the Red Cross and Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) would be the “key players” in restoring Barriere after the fire, the youth volunteered to help through MDS.

Ken Baerg is one of four firefighters in the Valleyview Bible Church. (Another member, Dave Marcotte, is a fire chief involved in organizing response at a provincial level.) In his 14 years as a firefighter, he has never experienced a summer like this one, he says, nor have any of the “oldtimers” in the department. The hours were long, the sights surreal. He also sees “fabulous opportunities for the Christian church.”

“I look around the world,” he says. “Where does God move? It’s generally where there’s need. God uses these situations.”

—dd