This post is a little different from most of what is on this site, but it is so amazing, I thought I’d include it anyway to show that miracles still happen today. You may not see this in regular news.
The November 15, 2018, issue of the Mississippi Baptist Record featured an incredible story about an event that occurred in the small city of Magalia, near Paradise, California, during the worst of the wildfires. I haven’t seen this in any of the news reports, but this is what happened on November 9, 2018.
Most of the residents of Magalia and Paradise had already evacuated, but Doug Crowder, the pastor of Magalia Pines Church, stayed behind to help the elderly, the homeless, people without enough gas for their vehicles, and others who weren’t able to get out of town. He was helping about 30 people get into vehicles in order to escape the rapidly approaching fires that neared their little town. Crowder said there was no fire in the adjacent city businesses or woods at that point, and everyone was in the the driveway ready to leave, when “the woods exploded. The Subway restaurant across the street exploded and on all sides of us was fire.”
The church members saw no way of escaping through the walls of fire, so they hurried back inside the building and prayed. They watched flames shooting between buildings and listened as thousands of gallons of propane detonated at a hardware store next door, but the fires never reached the church.
When they finally emerged, they viewed a surreal scene. Everything around the church was burned to the ground. Crowder reported that “we were totally unscathed–totally. The fall leaves were still on the trees” on the church’s property.
Most of the members of the church lost their homes in the fire, but with the Magalia Pines’ building one of the few structures in the town still standing, the congregation hopes to use it as a center to feed the community and minister to others.
We grieve for the great losses, but we rejoice with the thirty people will be forever grateful for a pastor who cared for them and prayed with them during the worst fire in California’s history. We praise Almighty God who heard their cry for help.