Home!

We made it home just fine last night... it took about 6 hours though. :-) Everything around our house is covered in very fine dust (the Santa Anna winds blow in dust from the desert) and ash. When we opened our garage, there was a pile of it just inside the door - the winds were strong enough to force a pile through the cracks! Upon entering the house, we could smell the smoke. Thankfully, we had purchased some large air purifiers from Home Depot while we were out of town. Now, after having them running for about 12 hours, the house is smelling much better. When we step outside it smells like someone had a large campfire the night before. I had to wear a mask last night when I cleaned out the car because the air quality was so poor. We'll be keeping things shut up for about a week or two; just to be safe, we'll be running these purifiers for about as long.

Here are some pictures that my brother in law took yesterday. He was in the neighborhoods by my house (ours is untouched). http://jason-allegra.blogspot.com/2007/10/photos-from-after-fires.html

Thank you to everyone that prayed for us and our friends. God's kindness is so evident - no one in the church lost a home yet (the fire is headed towards Julian where a few families live). Please pray for all of our neighbors and that we'd have opportunities to care for them and share the love of Jesus.