Westmont College Fire

My sister-in-law,Rebecca, sent this prayer request (yesterday) and update (today) about the fire situation at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA. (a sister college of Taylor University). Until a couple of months ago, Rebecca was the women's soccer coach at Westmont. Carter and Rebecca have since moved to the cornfields of Indiana, but have friends, colleagues and students who are and will be affected by the fires.

I, personally have a special place in my heart for Westmont, as 1) it was one of my top college choices, 2) my music teacher and my best friend convinced me (for approximately 18 agonizing hours) that I had been requested to give my testimony to their entire student body for chapel, and 3) I was personally sung to by the Westmont Ensemble! :)

Will you pray for them?

Nov. 14

Hey all,
Some of you have heard, but a fire started in Santa Barbara that hit Westmont pretty hard. Because of sun downer winds coming over the mountains (70 mph gusts), there was not time for Westmont students to evacuate. Fortunately, Westmont has an emergency fire plan in place and all students made it to the gym for refuge. One of the dorms was burnt (half of Clark hall) and the Science building. Some other buildings burned down, but they were all going to be demolished by the end of the year (Westmont is in the process of building some new buildings.)

One of the sadder things that happened is that 14 faculty members lost their home. Westmont has "Faculty housing" that only faculty at Westmont can buy. Three of my former coaching colleagues lost their homes, along with 11 other faculty members that I worked with. I am sure they are devastated right now, and would appreciate any prayers. Below is a link to a "post fire" video that shows the Science building. This is the building that had a GREAT view that I would take recruits to at the end of our campus tour. Anyhow, I am just sure they would all appreciate prayers in this hard time! I know they are all thankful that there were no deaths, but it is still a large pill to swallow.

http://disaster.westmont.edu/www/system_status/

Nov. 15

Things seem to be settling down at Westmont, as all the danger of fire is away. Westmont has posted pictures of the aftermath on campus if you're interested...

http://www.westmont.edu/

...seeing these pictures were a good reminder for me to continue praying despite the danger being gone.

Love,
Rebecca

An Irish Prayer

My sister had this prayer on their caringbridge website for Riley this morning.

An Irish Prayer

May God give you . . .
For every storm, a rainbow,
For every tear, a smile,
For every care, a promise,
And a blessing in each trial.
For every problem life sends,
A faithful friend to share,
For every sigh, a sweet song,
And an answer for each prayer.

Will You Pray?

This is an update I had in my email this morning from our church concerning our Pastor:

Dear church family at FBC and praying friends around the world,

About 70 people gathered in our sanctuary here in Cheyenne, WY tonight to pray for our beloved Pastor Lyn King, who became seriously ill over this past weekend.

I'm writing to ask all of you to join us as we step up the prayer for this man of God.

Our church entered a prayer vigil with fasting tonight (Monday, September 22, 6:30 p.m. MST)

which will continue until Friday, September 26th at 6:30 p.m. MST)

Pastor Lyn is currently in ICU in serious condition with a systemic infection. He was taken into surgery tonight to repair a perforated colon and other medical conditions were discovered. But until the systemic infection is knocked out, they cannot deal with the other conditions.

Please pass this message along to other prayer warriors who will pray. Please ask them to join us in fasting if they are able. This is an urgent time for prayer as many of us feel that the battle is a spiritual one.

You may feel like there is not much that you can do...but let me remind you that PRAYER CHANGES THINGS! You can pray.

"The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." (James 5:16)

Prayer Warriors...we need you.

A Time to Pray

We just got word tonight that our Pastor, Lyn King, is in the ICU with a systemic infection. From the short browsing that I just did on Google, it looks like a systemic infection can be very serious and even life-threatening. We'd sure appreciate it if you'd lift him and his wife, Bonnie and their family to the Lord in prayer. Thanks.