I’m working from home today for the third day in a row. On Friday morning I awoke to find 13 messages on my phone, including one from India, asking if I was OK. Thursday night, the Saddleridge fire had started a block away from the Children’s Hunger Fund HQ where I work. The fire, though small by some comparison, hit about 8,000 acres, much of it in mountainous terrain with steep canyons and a surplus of tinder-dry brush. More than 100,000 people were evacuated from their homes.

Here is some video footage of the fire from the LA Times.

It burned west from Sylmar and then north into the mountains near my home, and I stood with neighbors to watch the aerial assault by helicopters, a DC-10, and two CL-215 super scoopers. The wind whipped through the mountains for another two days, and we continued to watch the flames and the firefighters.

Children’s Hunger Fund was surrounded on 3 sides by fire and we have lost—wait for it—the landscaping and the paint job on a truck. The Lord protected the structure of the building, and the ministry continues. We have smoke to clean up, and that will take some time, but we have all been reminded of the Lord’s sovereignty. One of our staff members wrote to me this morning: “How kind He is to remind us of Who He is and that our hope is always in Him.” Amen to that!