Okanogan Complex Wildfire<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, and again in Okanogan County homes and land were lost. This fire was now the largest in Washington State history. This time, lives were lost. Three firefighters perished, four more were badly burnt.<\/p>\nAll others survived. They were devastated, homeless and despairing\u2026but they were alive. And, they are stronger than their fears. The Spirit of the living God fell on the people of North Central Washington like the ash that fell like snow in July.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of community meetings and hundreds of volunteers came together to rescue, relieve and rebuild the lives of those who were, and still are, suffering loss.<\/p>\n
We are two and half years into this disaster recovery. Approximately fifty homes will need to be replaced for the uninsured and underinsured, folks who can\u2019t purchase or can\u2019t afford adequate fire insurance. These are very modest homes for people who live simply and take care of one another. In mid-January house number 21 was completed.<\/p>\n
The Pacific Northwest Conference and UMCOR have invested more than $425,000 in the Carlton Complex Recovery. United Methodists have already pledged more than $200,000 to the Okanogan Complex Recovery, an additional $250,000 is needed. Numerous UMVIM Teams have participated in the rebuilding of these homes. We are still there; this is what we do.<\/p>\n
As PNW Conference UMCOR Disaster Response coordinators, we are privileged to be present when these completed home are dedicated. We get to witness firsthand the patience, persistence, and perseverance of dedicated volunteers and homeowners as they strive to rebuild their homes and their future. We witness volunteers from many various faith-based communities working together to help others. We witness God\u2019s people answering God\u2019s call. It\u2019s a spiritual issue!<\/p>\n
God calls us to help. God calls us to be the hands, feet, and voice of Christ in this recovery. God calls us to give sacrificially so that others may have life. God is calling you: time, talent, dollars.<\/p>\n
Form an UMVIM Team to help with the rebuild. Give sacrificially to \u201cUp from the Ashes\u201d PNW Conference Advance #352. God will take everything we give and multiply it more than we can imagine.<\/p>\n
\nPastors Gerri Harvill & Stanley Norman serve as\u00a0PNW Conference UMCOR Disaster Response Coordinators.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Pastors Gerri Harvill and Stanley Norman Patience. Persistence. Perseverance. Looking ahead in hope, for perspective, we must sometimes look back for a moment. So for just a moment, think back to July 2014. The weather had been extremely hot and dry. Fire danger was extreme in most of the Northwest, and certainly in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":14834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[111,493,445],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14833","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-channels","8":"category-rebuild-up-from-the-ashes","9":"category-umcor"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/IDEAS_Rebuild_Gerri.png?fit=741%2C486&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-3Rf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14833"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14837,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14833\/revisions\/14837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}