Hilltop Rescue Wildfire Relief

Dear Friends,

Several of the Hilltop Rescue leaders have been scouting in San Diego County over the last several days. The reports coming in are troubling. I wanted to share some excerpts from their trip notes:

We spent time in Ramona with Darryl and Donna--a very sweet retired couple that had lived in their home for 42 years. Their lives changed abruptly last week as they were given an urgent message from a neighbor who had received a 911 call. When Darryl and Donna got the call, they had 5 minutes to quickly gather their cats and escape their home. Seconds later their home was an inferno. They lost everything. After navigating the 80-90mph wind gusts, Darryl and Donna spent the next few days in shelters.

We met with this family today (Darryl, Donna and her brother Randy) as they arrived and saw their home for first time. Their hearts were heavy and understandably they had a number of emotions. They were confused about what they should do next, frustrated that the insurance lines were so long, mad that 911 didn't call them to give them the same 30 minute warning that their neighbor had, convicted that they would rebuild, but mostly they were thankful to be alive and for the neighbor who warned them. They call him their hero.

I'm thankful that God allowed us to be with this family at such an important moment in their life. We weren't able to do much but listen to their story and be with them in this difficult moment. We prayed and gave them a simple message of hope by assuring Donna and Darryl that there are many more who wish to come and help them in their recovery. They tearfully thanked us for whatever we could do.

It was hard to leave. We wanted so badly to spend the rest of the day at their home. And yet there are so many more hurting families. In fact, countrary what the media is covering, we were surprised by the number of lower income and elderly families that are victims to the fires.

The needs here are basic. Folks just need help with clean up. As expected it's a mess.barns, homes, trailers, cars and other structures have been burned. In addition, the wind gusts caused many trees to fall even in areas where there was limited fire damage. The resident victims of the Ramona area desperately need volunteer teams to come and assist.

Reports like this and discussions with other area churches have confirmed that we should deploy volunteers in the area of Ramona. Ramona is a rural, lower middle class to poor community whose residents are in need of help with debris removal, tree removal and contents removal from damaged homes and general clean up. (Much like mucking houses in New Orleans, only dry). Corky Cowart will be leading this relief effort operation and will be full time in Ramona for the next several months. Hilltop leadership has met with the leadership of the Ramona Church of Christ and found them to be energetic and sincere in their desire to help in the community. This desire to help has led this small congregation of 30 members to offer us their church facility for use as a volunteer base camp. We are excited to be working with the Ramona church and are looking forward to having our first volunteers come in later this week.

Our next goal is to quickly obtain the tools we need to get to work. You can help today. First, please pray for this relief effort. Second, please sign up to come and serve. We need all types of volunteers to share hope in this area. Third, if you can't volunteer, please enable our volunteers to help by making a financial contribution toward the purchase of supplies and equipment. You will find a list of the items we need on our website.

In Christ,

June White
Director of Communications
Hilltop Rescue & Relief