SPOKANE, Wash. (BP) – Churches and Southern Baptist Disaster Relief teams are continuing to respond amid historic wildfires in the Northwest.
A complete response strategy won’t come until the fires are out, and that won’t be for a while. Meanwhile, churches are joining others to help replace needed items. Valleypoint Church in Spokane is providing hygiene kits. The Rock Church is helping gather and deliver groceries. Grace Christian Fellowship opened up space for 30 displaced adult residents of a memory care center.
Those actions are occurring in one of the least religious areas of the country, said Northwest Baptist Convention Evangelism Specialist Zac Minton. Spiritual questions are bound to come up.
“Spokane is a very family-oriented community, but less than 6 percent attend an evangelical church,” he noted. “This is a very giving and caring community, and a lot of people are donating goods.”
In terms of acreage, the Autumn Lane, Old Trails and Fairview fires don’t stand out among others in the region. Their proximity to Spokane, though, has already placed them among the most destructive in state history in terms of structures lost.
Minton was an electrician dispatched to New Orleans after Katrina to pull electric meters. He helped after an EF4 tornado struck Moore, Okla., in 2010. This devastation is different.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said. “People’s lives are destroyed. But we’re trying to let them know that in the midst of the chaos, there is hope, and His name is Jesus.”
Of Oregon’s 2 million acres lost to fires this year, 1.81 million have come through the 32 currently burning.
Tens of thousands of acres have burned in Washington, headlined by those in Spokane County. Two deaths have been blamed on the fires, including that of a man who wrecked his ATV while attempting to fight the flames near his property. An arson suspect is in custody.
Minton arrived in Spokane 12 years ago as a church planter. He helped start three congregations, including the one he would serve as pastor, The Rock Church. A little over three years ago, he accepted an offer to serve as the state’s evangelism director, but remained in Spokane.
The current fires have displaced more than 65,000 people, said Minton, whose 3 Circles tattoo on his wrist always stands at the ready for a spiritual conversation. City leaders revealed yesterday, he added, that evacuation orders for some areas won’t be lifted for several days.
Disaster Relief personnel are on alert and working alongside churches, said Gary Floyd, state director. “There’s been at least one church burned, maybe more,” he said. “This fire is historical.”
Like Minton, he said the two biggest needs are prayer and money.
“They are effective,” said Floyd. “Money allows us to apply it where needed. People are praying for us around the world and saying they want to send teams. It’s a profound example of why cooperating and connecting around the Gospel is so important.”
He expects the cleanup could take up to five years. Part of the need will be more churches.
“We’re going to have people coming to Christ, and we’ll need others to build relationships with them. It will take years for people to process the loss on multiple levels,” he said.
Minton knows of three families in his church who lost their homes. One pastor and his family had to evacuate and sleep at the church.
Everyone is helping as they can, like Danny Morris, The Rock’s current pastor. He responded to Minton’s 6:30 a.m. call for someone to make a grocery run for the memory care patients at Grace Christian Fellowship.
Local pastors will continue to pray at 10:02 a.m. each day, Minton said.
“We’re praying for God to raise people up to come and do this ministry with us. Prayer is how I got here.”
