There's so much to discover at our new house. There's no end to the freaky and strange bugs and creepy-crawly-creatures that we keep finding! Just last night we found this terrifyingly ugly creature. It looks like a spider but it has ten legs and mandibles. I caught it(this was before I had a good look at it) and we put it in a big glass jar. Gabe is collecting strange things as he hopes to make a collection of it. Well, it's just plain creepy, it gives me the shivers every time I think of it.
We also found a snake in our house the other day. Gabe caught it and we discovered it's a poisonous snake. Oh well, I guess we have to be more mindful and not walk barefoot.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
Chips
French fries or chips are soooooo yummy! I'm sure you agree with me. During the move, when we had the trucks over, we decided we wanted to eat chips. It was Thursday last week and the truck had already left with the stuff and a few of us were left home to clean and do whatever was needed. Steve had left with the truck and I had managed to make a few sandwiches for him to take along.
We didn't really have anything to eat at home, we had moved the whole kitchen to the new house. Joy, Tim, and I decided to take a break and just go eat out. Give ourselves a little treat for working so hard...you know? Anyway, we took a little walk to Attebury and found a little chip stand. By this time we were starving so we bought nice big boxes of chips and I got a ham and cheese sandwich. We were so tired and hungry so that led to foolishness and we were being silly with the lady making us the food. Joy and I kept of teasing Tim and telling the lady to put chutney sauce on his fries. Of course Tim didn't want chutney sauce with his fries but the lady would play along with us and it was just so funny.
Once we got and paid for the food we found a bench to sit down. Ahhhh, it was so nice to relax and eat fries! It's so fun to be with Joy and Tim, they're so cute together.I think eating good food is really soothing for a weary soul. You should try it sometime.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
New House, Unpacking, And Other Tidbits...
We have now officially moved into our new house! Since then we have been busy unpacking, cleaning, and moving heavy furniture. I carried so many heavy things that I had such a backache for a few days. It's a weird feeling, you feel sorta like an old man, only minus the grey beard and wrinkles. I wish you could see how much stuff we have. It's crazy! I felt like we should just get rid of half the stuff. It takes forever to unpack and find a place for everything...
Being in a new house takes some getting used to. The first few nights I didn't sleep so well. That's also because we have a new bed! You know how it is, all of a sudden you have new factors like: mosquitoes, strange noises, strange smells(we have a thatch roof), strange sounds. The first morning after getting up I was looking out of our balcony and I saw a bunch of blesbok(a type of antelope) grazing near our property. That was cool!
For the two days we had the moving truck Steve was in charge of all the moving. He was the "moving manager" and took care of telling the movers what to take and out what to leave, what goes on the first or second trip. Then he also had to ride with them and direct the offloading. It was such a big job and he almost missed eating meals. I had to run around and make sure he had food to eat and make him lunch, etc otherwise he wouldn't eat. I'm so proud of him though and I don't know what we would've done without him.
A few guys from other home came to help: Phil, Ben, and Ben. They did so much for us and we're so thankful to them for their help. We also had Tim to help us for a few days of the move. He was such a big help and it would've been a lot harder without him. He did cooking, carrying furniture and boxes, cleaning, and much more. Of course Joy was happy to have Tim at our house so that was a double blessing. THANK YOU GUYS FOR ALL YOUR HELP!
Pretty much everyone(except Kiara and Brendan) is suffering from extreme fatigue and aches and pains. But, praise the Lord, we did it. It's not really over yet, there's still lots more to move and arrange. The good new is, is that we've made it this far and we're still alive! I love you all and thank you for thinking and praying for us.
Being in a new house takes some getting used to. The first few nights I didn't sleep so well. That's also because we have a new bed! You know how it is, all of a sudden you have new factors like: mosquitoes, strange noises, strange smells(we have a thatch roof), strange sounds. The first morning after getting up I was looking out of our balcony and I saw a bunch of blesbok(a type of antelope) grazing near our property. That was cool!
For the two days we had the moving truck Steve was in charge of all the moving. He was the "moving manager" and took care of telling the movers what to take and out what to leave, what goes on the first or second trip. Then he also had to ride with them and direct the offloading. It was such a big job and he almost missed eating meals. I had to run around and make sure he had food to eat and make him lunch, etc otherwise he wouldn't eat. I'm so proud of him though and I don't know what we would've done without him.
A few guys from other home came to help: Phil, Ben, and Ben. They did so much for us and we're so thankful to them for their help. We also had Tim to help us for a few days of the move. He was such a big help and it would've been a lot harder without him. He did cooking, carrying furniture and boxes, cleaning, and much more. Of course Joy was happy to have Tim at our house so that was a double blessing. THANK YOU GUYS FOR ALL YOUR HELP!
Pretty much everyone(except Kiara and Brendan) is suffering from extreme fatigue and aches and pains. But, praise the Lord, we did it. It's not really over yet, there's still lots more to move and arrange. The good new is, is that we've made it this far and we're still alive! I love you all and thank you for thinking and praying for us.
Monday, October 20, 2008
We're Moving!!!
Yes, this is it we are finally moving! The first moving truck will be here 9:00 Wednesday morning. So a lot of us spent today cleaning up the new house. You wouldn't believe the amount of dirt and dust we had to deal with. Anyway, tomorrow we will be focusing on packing, all the rest that needs to be done so we can be ready for Wed. Amazingly we got running water and electricity at the new house today. It was a real blessing as we were able to vacuum and do all that nitty-gritty stuff.
Now I'm just really tired and exhausted so I'm having a hard time concentrating on the screen here. This is probably going to be my last post...for the month or till we get Internet at the new house. Depending on how busy we'll be next week maybe we can come back to this house to connect and check mail, since we can keep this house till the 31st anyway.
Well, until then! Don't forget to keep us in your prayers.
Now I'm just really tired and exhausted so I'm having a hard time concentrating on the screen here. This is probably going to be my last post...for the month or till we get Internet at the new house. Depending on how busy we'll be next week maybe we can come back to this house to connect and check mail, since we can keep this house till the 31st anyway.
Well, until then! Don't forget to keep us in your prayers.
Sunday
Joy and I went to Menlyn this afternoon. We decided to dress sorta matching, just for fun. People here in South Africa apparently think we look Chinese! Anyway, we ran around a bit getting a few things before we sat down for a drink.
We went to a little coffee shop and I got a mug of coffee while Joy got some ice-coffee thing. I really like coffee but Joy never really drinks it. It makes her hyper and crazy! Her coffee was too strong for her so I sent her back to the counter to ask the lady to add more milk to it. The worst they could say is "no" right? The sweet lady filled it up to the top and Joy was all proud and happy with her drink. We had lots of fun talking and having sisterly time together. By the time we got back in the car to go home we were in such a foolish mood teasing and laughing at each other. (this is a normal occurrence in the Caroni family) The kids were saying the two of us shouldn't spend time together cause of the side effects. hahaha
Below are some new pictures I took when we came back home.
The view from our balcony. I saw the sunset today, it was just so gorgeous I couldn't resist. So I ran and borrowed a camera and ended up taking 10 or more shots of the sky. But this one looked the best so here it is.
Me showing off..lol Joy trimmed my hair recently and she gave me a new haircut with bangs.
Me and Steve.
We went to a little coffee shop and I got a mug of coffee while Joy got some ice-coffee thing. I really like coffee but Joy never really drinks it. It makes her hyper and crazy! Her coffee was too strong for her so I sent her back to the counter to ask the lady to add more milk to it. The worst they could say is "no" right? The sweet lady filled it up to the top and Joy was all proud and happy with her drink. We had lots of fun talking and having sisterly time together. By the time we got back in the car to go home we were in such a foolish mood teasing and laughing at each other. (this is a normal occurrence in the Caroni family) The kids were saying the two of us shouldn't spend time together cause of the side effects. hahaha
Below are some new pictures I took when we came back home.
The view from our balcony. I saw the sunset today, it was just so gorgeous I couldn't resist. So I ran and borrowed a camera and ended up taking 10 or more shots of the sky. But this one looked the best so here it is. Me showing off..lol Joy trimmed my hair recently and she gave me a new haircut with bangs.Me and Steve.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
I Love The Rain!
It's starting to rain here and I'm so happy about it. I love rain! I love the feeling of excitement I get when the dark clouds build up, and the wind starts to blow, and you hear the rumble of thunder. I love the smell of rain--that special scent in the air when it's about to rain and the clouds look so heavy that they're about to burst.
Rain has such a cozy feel. It makes you just want to curl up under the covers and sleep all day. Or walk around in baggy pyjamas, read a book, have a hot drink.
Or sometimes it makes you go crazy and you want to run and jump and dance in the rain. I want to splash in the puddles without a raincoat, close my eyes and try to drink the rain.
Rain has such a cozy feel. It makes you just want to curl up under the covers and sleep all day. Or walk around in baggy pyjamas, read a book, have a hot drink.
Or sometimes it makes you go crazy and you want to run and jump and dance in the rain. I want to splash in the puddles without a raincoat, close my eyes and try to drink the rain.
Some rain pictures I like:
"God is in the rain!"
Friday, October 17, 2008
Little Accidents
This week Steve was swimming with the kids when he hurt his finger really bad. At first he though it was nothing but a day later it was causing lots of pain and he thought it might be broken. We tried keeping it bandaged up and Niki gave us a popsicle stick to use as a splint.--so sweet! A few days later Steve was finally able to get an x-ray of it and it turned out that it wasn't broken, praise God. Today he got it looked at and the doctors said he must have damaged some tissue or muscle inside. They didn't say much else. So I guess we'll have to let it heal by itself as there really isn't much else that can be done. I'm just happy it's not broken. Please pray that it will heal quickly and without problems.
I was cooking lunch a few days ago and I was in a hurry to get it done on time. We have a counter ledge that sticks out a lot, it's kinda weird and I'm frequently bumping into it. I was rushing to put away dishes when I walked pretty much into the ledge. Well, it was my hip that banged into the counter, not the bone but right above. Owwww! It hurt so bad. It swelled up a bit and turned into one huge bruise. It hurt to sit or even lie down. Thankfully it's all past now and my side only hurts when pressure is applied. Lesson learned: haste makes waste! But I guess you already knew that. Some people(like me)only learn the hard way.
I was cooking lunch a few days ago and I was in a hurry to get it done on time. We have a counter ledge that sticks out a lot, it's kinda weird and I'm frequently bumping into it. I was rushing to put away dishes when I walked pretty much into the ledge. Well, it was my hip that banged into the counter, not the bone but right above. Owwww! It hurt so bad. It swelled up a bit and turned into one huge bruise. It hurt to sit or even lie down. Thankfully it's all past now and my side only hurts when pressure is applied. Lesson learned: haste makes waste! But I guess you already knew that. Some people(like me)only learn the hard way.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Stress Not
How to Relieve Stress
by: unknown
1. At lunch time, sit in your parked car with sunglasses on and point a hair dryer at passing cars. See if they slow down.
2. Page yourself over the intercom. Don''''t disguise your voice.
3. Every time someone asks you to do something, ask if they want fries with that.
4. Put your garbage can on your desk and label it "in"
5. Put decaf in the coffee maker for 3 weeks. Once everyone has Gotten over their caffeine addictions, switch to espresso.
6. In the memo field of all your checks, write "for sexual favors".
7. Finish all your sentences with "in accordance with the prophecy."
8. Don''''t use any punctuation marks
9. As often as possible, skip rather than walk.
10. Ask people what sex they are. Laugh hysterically after they answer.
11. Specify that your drive-through order is "to go".
12. Sing along at the opera.
13. Go to a poetry recital and ask why the poems don''''t rhyme.
14. Put mosquito netting around your work area. Play a tape of jungle sounds all day.
15. Five days in advance, tell your friends you can''''t attend their party because you''''re not in the mood.
16. Have your coworkers address you by your wrestling name, Rock Hard Kim.
17. When the money comes out the ATM, scream "I won!", "I won!" "3rd time this week!!!!!"
18. When leaving the zoo, start running towards the parking lot, yelling "run for your lives, they''''re loose!!"
19. Tell your children over dinner. "due to the economy, we are going to have to let one of you go."
by: unknown
1. At lunch time, sit in your parked car with sunglasses on and point a hair dryer at passing cars. See if they slow down.
2. Page yourself over the intercom. Don''''t disguise your voice.
3. Every time someone asks you to do something, ask if they want fries with that.
4. Put your garbage can on your desk and label it "in"
5. Put decaf in the coffee maker for 3 weeks. Once everyone has Gotten over their caffeine addictions, switch to espresso.
6. In the memo field of all your checks, write "for sexual favors".
7. Finish all your sentences with "in accordance with the prophecy."
8. Don''''t use any punctuation marks
9. As often as possible, skip rather than walk.
10. Ask people what sex they are. Laugh hysterically after they answer.
11. Specify that your drive-through order is "to go".
12. Sing along at the opera.
13. Go to a poetry recital and ask why the poems don''''t rhyme.
14. Put mosquito netting around your work area. Play a tape of jungle sounds all day.
15. Five days in advance, tell your friends you can''''t attend their party because you''''re not in the mood.
16. Have your coworkers address you by your wrestling name, Rock Hard Kim.
17. When the money comes out the ATM, scream "I won!", "I won!" "3rd time this week!!!!!"
18. When leaving the zoo, start running towards the parking lot, yelling "run for your lives, they''''re loose!!"
19. Tell your children over dinner. "due to the economy, we are going to have to let one of you go."
Thursday, October 9, 2008
The Journey
Don't let life pass you by. After all it's not where you're going, but how you get there that counts.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Our Great Adventure: The Fire
OK, firstly I want to apologise to all of you for not posting anything the past few weeks. I am still alive though and will try to make it up to you. There is a very good excuse(and excuses) for that though and I'll get to it in a minute.
The word "fire" in the title probably got your attention huh? Well, it wasn't just any fire, like a match fire or little bonfire. What I'm going to tell you is about one of those really BIG fires that are actually quite scary and could consume one's house in a matter of minutes. Anyway, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here, so I'll try to start from the beginning.
The Lord had given us this house: really beautiful, in a nature reserve, pool, garden, cottage, thatch roof. It was all ours by faith. The Lord had given us many promises in prophecy and we had lots of prayer meetings from the time we saw the house till now. Problems kept on cropping up, it felt like we'd take two steps forward and the enemy would push us one step back.
Some of the problems:
-There was no water or electricity at the house making building and cleaning difficult
-We found there was a complication with the water as it comes from a borehole
-The owner was almost impossible to get in contact with
-He wasn't coming through with his promises (like clearing out rubble and trash)
-The neighbors told us that the owner was a dishonest man, and basically described him as a "shark"
On the building side of things it was going pretty well for the most part. We got all the building materials donated to us and we only had to buy a few things like tile adhesive. I won't say that it was easy, we had most of the guys gone 5-7 days of the week. We also had to keep people up at the house at night for security's sake as we had the generator and our power tools up there.
Because of the seeming difficulties we had to ask the moving company if we could push back the moving date from the 22 of September to the 22 of October. It seemed like a setback at the time.
One Wednesday, two/three weeks ago now, it was especially chaotic. We were trying to organize trips to the house, who needed to go and what needed to be done. It was decided that Jim and June would go and the kids would go and get to explore the nature reserve. Jim was going to stay the night at the new house to keep guard then June thought she would stay at the house with him. The kids were supposed to come back home for dinner but they decided to stay and sleepover at the new house.
Later in the evening 5 of us young people took the second car out clubbing for a friends birthday. It was just a normal day and now night, or so we thought. We had fun out at the club, dancing and spending time with friends. Since we had a normal work-day the next day we decided to leave at 1:00. I was feeling pretty tired from the day and we had been dancing for 3 or 4 hours now. Noah reassured us that he was fine driving this late and encouraged us to sleep on the ride home.
I settled down in my seat and tried to get comfy for the ride. Five minutes later Noah's cell rings. It sounded like a call from home and I was wondering what could be going on this late at home for them to call us. We were all sitting up when Noah said, "What?!" on the phone, then I knew for sure something was wrong. As soon as the call ended we bombarded him with questions.
"The cottage is on fire! They're asking us to the house to help as soon as possible as there are no other cars at home!"
Hearing that was just so weird and for a while it couldn't register properly in my brain. Why would there be a fire? It just didn't make sense. After a few seconds we in the car all joined in prayer. We hadn't been told how serious the fire was but we prayed as best as we could for a few minutes. The minutes dragged as we sat in the car in silence. Noah turned on the emergency lights and we raced down the highway as fast as we could go. Joy kept on praying in a whisper and pretty soon I joined her. I wasn't really sure what to pray for but I prayed for us to make it there safely, for the house, the children.
On the last piece of road down to the nature reserve, I had the feeling that I had never felt so desperate in all my life. Was the whole house burning? Was anyone hurt? After praying so much I felt like I couldn't pray anymore. I just started to praise the Lord. I know it sounds strange but I started to praise the Lord for the fire and all that had happened with the house.
The last hundred metres or so from the nature reserve we could see the whole thing. The house is up on a hill and can be seen clearly from the road. This time was different, it was night so everything was dark, everything except the fire! We could see fire on the hill and it looked like a lot. There was fire where our house was, fire behind, and a line of fire coming around the right side to the front. It was terrifying!
It looked like a serious bushfire. What are we going to do? We don't even have any hoses or water! Our Honda went through the reserve and up that hill bouncing up and down on every bump and hole in the road. When we got closer we realised with relief that the house was not yet on fire. Still the roof was thatch and a little wind was blowing, realistically and logically speaking there was no hope.
When we neared the house we jumped out of the car. Noah and Anita went back down to direct the firetruck that was supposed to arrive soon, the rest of us ran to help. June came running to us shouting, but I couldn't understand. We were still dressed in our party clothes as we had come straight from the club. I was a little wobbly on the bumpy/rocky road in my high-heels but you never really mind those kind of things in emergencies. June finally asked if one of us could stay with the children, she had told them to go further down the road a safer distance from the fire. She had been running back and forth from the children and the fire that whole time.
I thought that staying with the kids was just as needed as putting out the fire, and well, as much as we'd like too we can't all be heroes. So I offered to go be with the the kids and searched the darkness for them. I ran back down calling their names and finally saw two figures in the dark. We hugged and huddled together for comfort and warmth. They were so brave, I was so proud of them. The told me their side of the story and together we prayed against the fire and for those fighting it. From where we were standing we couldn't see so well what was going on. The cottage roof was completely burned and now the inside with all the junk and scrap wood was burning. Wind blew sparks from the cottage and caught the carport on fire. We couldn't see though because of the distance and tree in front. To us it looked like one side of the house had caught on fire. There was nothing we could do but pray. The kids and I were crying and praying asking the Lord to spare the house and all our people there fighting the fire. We prayed desperately for the wind to blow in the opposite direction away from the house. I also started praying specifically against anyone doing anything crazy that might get them hurt.
Meanwhile a bunch of neighbors had come up to our house to help or to watch. One neighbor brought a small truck with a generator attached to a water tank and a hose. That was a real help as there was no running water on the property.
Jim, June, Steve and Joy were trying to put out the fire on the carport roof and hopefully save the house from catching on fire. The house is 5 or so metres from the carport so they were really afraid of it spreading. Upon arriving at the scene Steve jumped into the water tank (that thankfully had some water left in it)and started hauling out buckets of water to Joy. Joy would pass the bucket to Jim who would then run and dump it on the fire. The water tank was quite big and Joy could only see Steve's hand as he passed the bucket to her. The poor guys felt pretty helpless! And Jim was still barefoot and in his pyjamas running back and forth on the gravel.
At one point when the carport was barely burning Joy asked June if they should go under and try to some some of the stuff there. "No way!" June was adamant that no one should try going under there to save anything. Just minutes later the roof collapsed and the whole thing burst into huge flames. Everyone had to take a few steps back and cover their eyes as the heat was so strong. Seeing that happen from were the kids and I were we all thought for sure the house has caught on fire.
There was an air con in the carport and Jim was afraid that it might explode. He finally threw a few buckets of sand on it and it popped and fizzled and stoped burning. The people operating the hose sprayed the burning thatch a bit, but then watered the wall between the house and the carport. The wall was so hot that the water sprayed on it turned to steam. It's a miracle the roof of the house didn't light.
The firemen and policeman arrived around that time. They first started spraying down the cottage a bit. There wasn't much to be done about that they had to let it burn down or else it could start up again. It was the same for the carport. All they could do was to make sure things stayed under control and that the house didn't catch fire.
Back home the mommies had been praying from the time they first received the call about the fire till the time we all got back home. Gabe then borrowed the car from next door( thank you sweet neighbors! xoxox) and drove up to the house along with Liz and Andy. The ASH was also alerted about the fire and the sweet people sent a carload of men to come help. Mind you this was all happening between 1 and 2 in the morning.
Gabe and them arrived even before the firemen, and GB Gabe he really went on the attack against the fire. After helping a bit at the house he left by himself and put out the fire that had been creeping around the side of our property. When I found this out I told him he should have asked someone to go with him for safety. Thankfully he was perfectly fine and did not get hurt.
After turning the kids over to Liz I went with Joy to see the damage caused by the fire. There was lots of smoke coming from the burning remains of the carport and I could barely see my way through the gate. Everything was under control though. We were able to be a witness to the policeman and even the fireman. The police himself commented to Jim that it was a miracle that the house didn't catch on fire. He said if that house started burning there was nothing that could be done to save it. "You could even hose the whole roof down till the inside of the house would flood but it wouldn't stop the burning thatch," he told us."
They kept raking the thatch and letting it burn, occasionally spraying it to keep it down. Since the firetruck was the only thing with water now they had to conserve it for the house roof instead of using it on the remains of the cottage and carport.
It was difficult to look at the fire damage, especially to see the cottage burnt out with only the shell remaining. We had put so much work and effort into the cottage and now it was only burning ruble. I felt especially sad for Steve and Jim who had worked on the cottage almost everyday for 3 weeks!
By about 3am we finally went home. The firemen would stay longer and we left Noah and Jim to guard the house for the rest of the night. The ride back home was very quiet. We were thankful the house had been spared and that no one had gotten hurt. But it was difficult to accept the loss of the cottage.
I was so exhausted when we got home. I had to go change into warmer clothes as that whole time I had been standing outside getting chilled in my party clothes.Everyone gathered together in the living room to pray. We poured out our hearts to the Lord praying for continued protection and even thanking Him. After praying we discussed the miracles of the whole event. It was so touching to hear the different sides of the story and to see people praise the Lord in spite of it all! God bless Janet and Nora who had stayed home the whole time and prayed for all of us from start to finish. We were able to share with them what happened. A few people had visions of the Lord's protection and it was so nice to end this terrifying experience on a positive note.
I munched on dry toast as I listened to different people speak. It was past 4am now and I felt very weak. We finally ended the prayer and praise and everyone stumbled off to bed. I managed to shower and wash off the smoke and burning smell before crawling into bed with Steve at 4:30. He was pretty upset by the fire. I didn't really know what to say so we just prayed for the night and I drifted off into a troubled sleep.
I would like to thank all of you who faithfully pray for me and for our home. I know your prayers were a help to us in our time of need.
The word "fire" in the title probably got your attention huh? Well, it wasn't just any fire, like a match fire or little bonfire. What I'm going to tell you is about one of those really BIG fires that are actually quite scary and could consume one's house in a matter of minutes. Anyway, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here, so I'll try to start from the beginning.
The Lord had given us this house: really beautiful, in a nature reserve, pool, garden, cottage, thatch roof. It was all ours by faith. The Lord had given us many promises in prophecy and we had lots of prayer meetings from the time we saw the house till now. Problems kept on cropping up, it felt like we'd take two steps forward and the enemy would push us one step back.
Some of the problems:
-There was no water or electricity at the house making building and cleaning difficult
-We found there was a complication with the water as it comes from a borehole
-The owner was almost impossible to get in contact with
-He wasn't coming through with his promises (like clearing out rubble and trash)
-The neighbors told us that the owner was a dishonest man, and basically described him as a "shark"
On the building side of things it was going pretty well for the most part. We got all the building materials donated to us and we only had to buy a few things like tile adhesive. I won't say that it was easy, we had most of the guys gone 5-7 days of the week. We also had to keep people up at the house at night for security's sake as we had the generator and our power tools up there.
Because of the seeming difficulties we had to ask the moving company if we could push back the moving date from the 22 of September to the 22 of October. It seemed like a setback at the time.
One Wednesday, two/three weeks ago now, it was especially chaotic. We were trying to organize trips to the house, who needed to go and what needed to be done. It was decided that Jim and June would go and the kids would go and get to explore the nature reserve. Jim was going to stay the night at the new house to keep guard then June thought she would stay at the house with him. The kids were supposed to come back home for dinner but they decided to stay and sleepover at the new house.
Later in the evening 5 of us young people took the second car out clubbing for a friends birthday. It was just a normal day and now night, or so we thought. We had fun out at the club, dancing and spending time with friends. Since we had a normal work-day the next day we decided to leave at 1:00. I was feeling pretty tired from the day and we had been dancing for 3 or 4 hours now. Noah reassured us that he was fine driving this late and encouraged us to sleep on the ride home.
I settled down in my seat and tried to get comfy for the ride. Five minutes later Noah's cell rings. It sounded like a call from home and I was wondering what could be going on this late at home for them to call us. We were all sitting up when Noah said, "What?!" on the phone, then I knew for sure something was wrong. As soon as the call ended we bombarded him with questions.
"The cottage is on fire! They're asking us to the house to help as soon as possible as there are no other cars at home!"
Hearing that was just so weird and for a while it couldn't register properly in my brain. Why would there be a fire? It just didn't make sense. After a few seconds we in the car all joined in prayer. We hadn't been told how serious the fire was but we prayed as best as we could for a few minutes. The minutes dragged as we sat in the car in silence. Noah turned on the emergency lights and we raced down the highway as fast as we could go. Joy kept on praying in a whisper and pretty soon I joined her. I wasn't really sure what to pray for but I prayed for us to make it there safely, for the house, the children.
On the last piece of road down to the nature reserve, I had the feeling that I had never felt so desperate in all my life. Was the whole house burning? Was anyone hurt? After praying so much I felt like I couldn't pray anymore. I just started to praise the Lord. I know it sounds strange but I started to praise the Lord for the fire and all that had happened with the house.
The last hundred metres or so from the nature reserve we could see the whole thing. The house is up on a hill and can be seen clearly from the road. This time was different, it was night so everything was dark, everything except the fire! We could see fire on the hill and it looked like a lot. There was fire where our house was, fire behind, and a line of fire coming around the right side to the front. It was terrifying!
It looked like a serious bushfire. What are we going to do? We don't even have any hoses or water! Our Honda went through the reserve and up that hill bouncing up and down on every bump and hole in the road. When we got closer we realised with relief that the house was not yet on fire. Still the roof was thatch and a little wind was blowing, realistically and logically speaking there was no hope.
When we neared the house we jumped out of the car. Noah and Anita went back down to direct the firetruck that was supposed to arrive soon, the rest of us ran to help. June came running to us shouting, but I couldn't understand. We were still dressed in our party clothes as we had come straight from the club. I was a little wobbly on the bumpy/rocky road in my high-heels but you never really mind those kind of things in emergencies. June finally asked if one of us could stay with the children, she had told them to go further down the road a safer distance from the fire. She had been running back and forth from the children and the fire that whole time.
I thought that staying with the kids was just as needed as putting out the fire, and well, as much as we'd like too we can't all be heroes. So I offered to go be with the the kids and searched the darkness for them. I ran back down calling their names and finally saw two figures in the dark. We hugged and huddled together for comfort and warmth. They were so brave, I was so proud of them. The told me their side of the story and together we prayed against the fire and for those fighting it. From where we were standing we couldn't see so well what was going on. The cottage roof was completely burned and now the inside with all the junk and scrap wood was burning. Wind blew sparks from the cottage and caught the carport on fire. We couldn't see though because of the distance and tree in front. To us it looked like one side of the house had caught on fire. There was nothing we could do but pray. The kids and I were crying and praying asking the Lord to spare the house and all our people there fighting the fire. We prayed desperately for the wind to blow in the opposite direction away from the house. I also started praying specifically against anyone doing anything crazy that might get them hurt.
Meanwhile a bunch of neighbors had come up to our house to help or to watch. One neighbor brought a small truck with a generator attached to a water tank and a hose. That was a real help as there was no running water on the property.
Jim, June, Steve and Joy were trying to put out the fire on the carport roof and hopefully save the house from catching on fire. The house is 5 or so metres from the carport so they were really afraid of it spreading. Upon arriving at the scene Steve jumped into the water tank (that thankfully had some water left in it)and started hauling out buckets of water to Joy. Joy would pass the bucket to Jim who would then run and dump it on the fire. The water tank was quite big and Joy could only see Steve's hand as he passed the bucket to her. The poor guys felt pretty helpless! And Jim was still barefoot and in his pyjamas running back and forth on the gravel.
At one point when the carport was barely burning Joy asked June if they should go under and try to some some of the stuff there. "No way!" June was adamant that no one should try going under there to save anything. Just minutes later the roof collapsed and the whole thing burst into huge flames. Everyone had to take a few steps back and cover their eyes as the heat was so strong. Seeing that happen from were the kids and I were we all thought for sure the house has caught on fire.
There was an air con in the carport and Jim was afraid that it might explode. He finally threw a few buckets of sand on it and it popped and fizzled and stoped burning. The people operating the hose sprayed the burning thatch a bit, but then watered the wall between the house and the carport. The wall was so hot that the water sprayed on it turned to steam. It's a miracle the roof of the house didn't light.
The firemen and policeman arrived around that time. They first started spraying down the cottage a bit. There wasn't much to be done about that they had to let it burn down or else it could start up again. It was the same for the carport. All they could do was to make sure things stayed under control and that the house didn't catch fire.
Back home the mommies had been praying from the time they first received the call about the fire till the time we all got back home. Gabe then borrowed the car from next door( thank you sweet neighbors! xoxox) and drove up to the house along with Liz and Andy. The ASH was also alerted about the fire and the sweet people sent a carload of men to come help. Mind you this was all happening between 1 and 2 in the morning.
Gabe and them arrived even before the firemen, and GB Gabe he really went on the attack against the fire. After helping a bit at the house he left by himself and put out the fire that had been creeping around the side of our property. When I found this out I told him he should have asked someone to go with him for safety. Thankfully he was perfectly fine and did not get hurt.
After turning the kids over to Liz I went with Joy to see the damage caused by the fire. There was lots of smoke coming from the burning remains of the carport and I could barely see my way through the gate. Everything was under control though. We were able to be a witness to the policeman and even the fireman. The police himself commented to Jim that it was a miracle that the house didn't catch on fire. He said if that house started burning there was nothing that could be done to save it. "You could even hose the whole roof down till the inside of the house would flood but it wouldn't stop the burning thatch," he told us."
They kept raking the thatch and letting it burn, occasionally spraying it to keep it down. Since the firetruck was the only thing with water now they had to conserve it for the house roof instead of using it on the remains of the cottage and carport.
It was difficult to look at the fire damage, especially to see the cottage burnt out with only the shell remaining. We had put so much work and effort into the cottage and now it was only burning ruble. I felt especially sad for Steve and Jim who had worked on the cottage almost everyday for 3 weeks!
By about 3am we finally went home. The firemen would stay longer and we left Noah and Jim to guard the house for the rest of the night. The ride back home was very quiet. We were thankful the house had been spared and that no one had gotten hurt. But it was difficult to accept the loss of the cottage.
I was so exhausted when we got home. I had to go change into warmer clothes as that whole time I had been standing outside getting chilled in my party clothes.Everyone gathered together in the living room to pray. We poured out our hearts to the Lord praying for continued protection and even thanking Him. After praying we discussed the miracles of the whole event. It was so touching to hear the different sides of the story and to see people praise the Lord in spite of it all! God bless Janet and Nora who had stayed home the whole time and prayed for all of us from start to finish. We were able to share with them what happened. A few people had visions of the Lord's protection and it was so nice to end this terrifying experience on a positive note.
I munched on dry toast as I listened to different people speak. It was past 4am now and I felt very weak. We finally ended the prayer and praise and everyone stumbled off to bed. I managed to shower and wash off the smoke and burning smell before crawling into bed with Steve at 4:30. He was pretty upset by the fire. I didn't really know what to say so we just prayed for the night and I drifted off into a troubled sleep.
I would like to thank all of you who faithfully pray for me and for our home. I know your prayers were a help to us in our time of need.
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