Our crazy day actually started last night- February 22, 2012. We got home late from visiting a friend and followed a police car up the hill into the little trailer park that we live in.
He had two spotlights on top of his car, and was driving very slowly up the hill, shining the lights in between the trailers on both sides of the road. We realized that he was looking for someone, so we prayed that God would let him find that person. (We have had problems in the park for quite some time now with homes and storage buildings being broken into.)
Another police car came up the hill shortly after the first one did, and the two officers met each other on the road. They sat in their cars and talked for a while before leaving the park, without finding the person they were looking for.
This afternoon, Eddie was outside working on our lawn mower, when he noticed that the man who lives practically in our backyard (in the trailer park behind us), was leaving for his second shift job. (The man has only lived there for a few months. He bought the trailer in October, 2011, and has been remodeling it.)
One of our neighbors stopped by and tried to help Eddie get the mower running, but couldn’t. So he told Eddie to take it to his house and he would work on it tomorrow when he had time.
In the meantime, I was preparing dinner. When I went outside to let Eddie know that it was ready, he told me that he was going to the neighbor’s house to take the lawnmower there and that he would be right back.
I walked back into the house and the phone was ringing. It was mom, (who lives across the street from us), telling me that she could hear sirens; and could see a police car blocking off the main road.
I could also hear the loud vehicles, and they sounded like they were coming from the trailer park behind us, so I looked out the back door of our trailer and saw smoke coming from the roof seams of the trailer that our new neighbor had just moved into a few months earlier!
As I stood there crying, all I could do was to pray- hard- because I know that he has an inside dog living with him!
That trailer park road was filled almost instantly with fire trucks from THREE towns, police cars, an ambulance, and volunteers with their vehicle lights flashing.
The front door of the house was locked, so the firemen had to kick it in. They could hear a dog barking inside, so they hurried to get in there. After they got the door broken down, three men clothed in fire suits carrying tanks on their backs, went inside the fiery building- which now had smoke pouring out of all the cracks and crevices around the windows.
Two men stayed inside to break out the windows, while the other one carried out the dog in his arms.
He laid its lifeless body on the ground and many of the other firemen and EMT workers gathered around and tried to revive it for quite a while… all to no avail. They finally gave up, and wrapped the dog’s body in a white sheet and laid it on the lawn.
I just stood there, crying and praying; thinking about the poor man who lived in that trailer, and what he would find when he came home from work.
By now, many of our neighbors had gathered around, and we all continued to pray for safety for the men who were still inside the trailer.
While we stood there praying, two of the firemen walked around to the outside back of the trailer, (which by now had black smoke pouring out of every window and door), and dug a hole in the ground. They then lovingly picked up the dog (who was still wrapped in a white sheet) and buried him in the hole that they had just dug. They had tears in their eyes; and bowed their heads, seeming to say a little prayer, after covering him up.
It was obvious that these compassionate firefighters were really sad that they could not revive the dog, and that was comforting to see.
In the meantime, mom, who was still on the phone with me, told me that there were now 3 police cars out in front of our trailer!
WHAT NEXT?!
So we ran back inside and went to the front door to look out and see what was going on. There were 3 officers talking to someone who was in a car parked near the mailboxes.
We watched them put handcuffs on a man who was standing there, and they then put him in the back of one of the police cars.
We later learned that the man who was arrested was the one the police had been looking for the night before! He has been breaking into trailers and storage buildings in the trailer parks in our area for quite a while now, and he was also seen coming out of the trailer behind us just before the fire started there!
Please keep all of the people involved in this tragedy in your prayers.
The man who was arrested needs Jesus in his life. He looks to us to be very young; perhaps only about 21 or 22- years old.
And as for the poor man whose trailer caught fire, I cannot imagine being at work and getting a phone call that your trailer is on fire and your dog is dead.
The saving grace is that he is already a Christian. We went down to his house to meet him when he moved in, and he is a very nice, young man.
We pray that his trailer can be salvaged, although it doesn’t look like it will be able to. There is a lot of damage- mostly from smoke and water. There are also many broken windows and doors.
Most of us take things for granted- things like the fact that we have a house to live in; a car to drive; food to eat; clothes to wear; and a job to pay our bills. We may even have pets to keep us company.
But when you watch someone’s house burn and you know that they have just lost everything that they own, it makes you grateful that the one thing that NO FIRE can take away from you is your salvation and your love for Jesus Christ.
We have personally watched THREE trailers in our area burn to the ground in the last few years, as well as witnessing the horrible fire today.
How about you? Have you ever actually sat down and thought about what you would do if you lost all of your worldly possessions, and/or your pets, in a moment of time?
Would you be able to turn to Jesus for comfort and guidance- like Job did, or would you fall apart?
If Jesus Christ is not the Lord and Savior of your life, please take this opportunity to bow your head and ask Him to be.
All you need to do is to repent of your sins- that is, to tell the Lord that you are honestly sorry about the things that you have done that are not pleasing to Him; then acknowledge the fact that He died on the cross and shed His sinless blood so that YOUR sins can be forgiven; and finally- ask Him to come into your heart and to help you to live for Him for the rest of your life on earth.
If you would like more information about salvation, please contact us.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. (Philippians 4:23, KJV)