On Oct. 30 the Liaison between the Marines and the CA. Dept. of Forestry, (CDF) told us to stow what items we could as he anticipated the event to wind down.  Later on that day we were dismissed from active duty after we prepared lunch on the 31st.

   As soon as our team informed the responders of this situation you could sense a real disappointment in their demeanor…so Ginger decided to put something really special together. How about this for field grub; BBQ tri-tip, potatoes salad, garlic bread and apple crisp ala’ mode!  Some of the Marine responders had been to Iraq two times and are staged to go back soon.  They had not had apple crisp in a couple of years or more.  What a joy and privilege it is to brighten their day in this way.  “We are going to miss you sooo much” was the comment of the day.

   The following are some anecdotal thoughts concerning this response: 

   1) We found that we were positioned in a forward camp between the main base camp and the fire line. The big contracted providers handle much greater numbers of people in the base camps but it is simply a chow line.  Yes, we were able to provide food but there was another element we brought…heart.  We found that the responders would hang out with us after their meals.  They would sit and talk at the tables and interact with us as if it were the kitchen table at there house.  I would often greet them as they returned from the line with a hearty “Welcome home boys!” and that is the way they treated it. You would be hard pressed to find this atmosphere at a base camp where the line is a quarter mile long at meal times.

   2)  Other volunteer organizations attached to us as a door way to bring there offerings to the fire line.  One group had a truckload of food and could not get in.  When we were placed they were able to get their donation as well as manpower to the line where they could finally participate and share their heart of compassion through our doorway.  We also were used by the community who would stop by with cookies, brownies, a pot of baked beans, sun glasses, chap stick, and various other offerings of the heart.  It was our table that was the bridge to the responders and we praise God for that.

   3)  A seed that had been planted four years ago in the community received some water.  It is the heart of the Church in Valley Center to be there for the community in times of crises.  They do an excellent job of and have great insight and vision. We pray that the involvement of Real Life Church and The Soup Ladies has inspired and maybe added another dimension to their vision. A great teacher once said; “You teach what you know, but you recreate what you are!” We pray that a piece of our heart was left to attach to the precious heart already present in that town.

   4) In one of my bosses communications to me he made a profound observation; “One of the many things I love about our wonderful country, is the generosity and the willingness to help when help is needed.  Our detractors can say what they want, but the American people are compassionate, caring, have heart, and take action when action is needed.”  We observed this in both public and private sectors.  From drastic discounts at major grocery chains to “CARE” packages dropped off in the middle of the night at our table people want to do something to help in times of crisis. It is our  hope that some of the protocols that are in place will be revisited and rewritten to allow the community involvement in these responses.

  5) Small does not mean insignificant. (See this weeks blogs and photo’s!)

   In closing, it has been a joy and a privilege to work with this core team of five dedicated servants. I am proud to be numbered among them.  We are packed and returning with knowledge and equipment that we did not have before.  We will be better prepared for the next crisis…or should I say opportunity to serve.  Our sincerest thanks to all who made this possible, from our dedicated and understanding spouses, our ministry authorities, our host homes, the generous contributors both financial and hard asset, and to God, without whom none of this would have been possible.  The Real Missions logo states;  “Our hands sharing God’s heart.” Is there any arena where this is more evident than in a community emergency response?  See you with us next time!!  Kevin Martindale

  This time I participated more with the evacuation center at Valley Center managed by the Red Cross.  I met wondelful people from all over San Diego that are Red Cross volunteers. I was there to assist the Chief Coordinator for Mental Health Services Mr. Tim  (They all go by first names so it was hard to learn last names) I was told that about 80% of the evacuees there in that evac. center  are hispanics whose homes were burned down. I was asked to come and assist with Spanish Interpretation and translation. Once there the site’s Manager Don (about a 75++ year old energetic and joyful fellow) call me to let me know he had a special assignment for me. John and my daughters were sent to work with the children and hand out balloon figures. The girls were to help John with the spanish speaking kids.

Don hooked me up with a christian gentleman Mr Jim Tucker a 64 yr. old man from that area and Decon at Valley Center Christian Community Church.  He was an evacuee himself and  had a stong conviction that everyone in the center needed at least 2 pieces of new  underwear and a pair of clean new socks. Jim needed to go to Walmart and requested that a female lady would acompany him to purchase the female underclothes. So Don assigned me to help Jim.

We went to Walmart loaded our cart with 7 packages with 6 pieces of each size (s,m,l,xl) of undies for females and males and many bags of blacks socks ( per Don’s specifications, because dirt would be less noticable in black socks).  When we were looking for more undergarments for men a Walmart attendant came to us asking us if we were really going to buy that whole cart full un underwear… YES!! I replied, this gentleman is buying this with his own money for the evacuees and then all of a sudden I heard myself say: ‘CAN I SPEAK TO YOUR STORE’S MANAGER” … after I had said that I asked myself.. ”where did that come from?”‘… The clerk asked me what I wanted to speak to the manager about (I did not even know) but then I heard myself say: “This man is buying this whole cart of your products for evacuees and I would like to speak to the manager to see if she could authorize a discount”. The clerk called the manager and she had gone to lunch, then the manager’s assistant and the assistant said that he could not give us a discount on new merchandise that was in packages but that they had a bin full of clothes they were collecting for the evacuees, and asked us if we were willing to take what was there. We said YES!! and went to the back of the store to pick up the stuff from the bin. When we emptied that full bin.. GUESS WHAT WAS THERE???  That bin was full of men’s undergarments and men’s socks, baby socks and 5 packages of diapers!!!!!!!!! We had to go back and return half of our shopping cart. THE LORD BLESSED THIS MAN! Who was willing to obey the Lord and trust Him with his finances. This brother lives on social security checks of 775.00 per month. The bill for what he purchased was 241.00  If he had bought the men’s undergarments and the mens socks, the babies socks and diapers that  bill would probably had been more than 500.00 dolars. The Lord blessed him in providing to him half of his shopping list. It was clear he knew WHO was his provider!!!

We went back to the center and made little baggies of 2 pieces of undergarments and one pair of socks for all 125 evacuees in that Center. I attach the pictures were my daughters are helping do the baggies. Some got distributed today and some will be given out tomorrow.

I was able to witness the miracle of mulltiplication. God provided for this man’s faith. I was trully blessed to be on this “UNDERGARMENT SPECIAL MISSION” for today.

The pictures I send here are: 1. The camp site for the firefighters. When Angel and I arrived this morning there was about 200 give or take Fire Engines in that lot.  You can see the tents where the firemen slept. Picture #2 WALMART San Marcos Employees that help with the undergarment donation Pic#3 My daughters with 2 marines @ The Soup Ladies Kitchen. Picture #4 Ashley and Lorrie (My daughters)  making undie/baggies. Pic#5 Captain Saul from Fire Station #73 and Myself.

I have been trully blessed.

Thank you for your prayers.

On SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT,

Brenda.

   I must say that we are very blessed to have found a congregation of people who shares the same DNA as Real Life Church.  We are staying in host homes that are so comfortable it is like staying with one of you!  The people of God are everywhere and in times of crisis like Valley Center is experiencing we are ONE with one another! 

   Members of Ridgeview Church have come along side of us.  We are now fulfilling a role that was absent from other agencies public and private!  Just like us on “Blow Down” day 2004, Ridgeview was doing what they could considering mandatory evacuations and the complexities of catastrophe. Since we have arrived they have provided guides for us to lead us to the stores and other places that we need to go, they have run all over town for us to provide for even the littlest need, and have introduced us around to key individuals within their connectivity to help us do what we came here to do. There is a fire burning on the hill behind this very home as I compose this blog.  My prayer is that Ridgeview, Real Life Church, and the other people of God in this area will be able to make such an impact during this crisis time that the next fire that burns in these hills is the Spiritual fire of Revival!!

   Just for the record, we got our placement through the Chaplaincy network.  The head Chaplain of San Diego County calling a Regional Chaplain in Valley Center to place a volunteer group wheeling 1300 miles out of Washington State to fill a need. Oh, by the way, did I mention that the Chaplain for Emergency Services in Valley Center is Pastor Bill Trok, head Pastor of Ridgeview church?  Is God in this or what?  More to come.

Kevin Martindale

   …And the race goes on!  We had to commute all the way back (about 100 miles) to Costa Mesa because all of our gear was at the host home.  We have made a contact through Donovan Torp with the ”Friendships” organization and they had a 28 foot truck (like our set-up truck) front to back full of food.  So the rest of the team left at 5:30am (four hours sleep) to return to prepare breakfast and I stayed to ride with the Friendships team, stop at Sam’s Club, and meet them down at the Poomocha fire.

   Breakfast served, lunch preparations, food sorting, waste processing…the work seems to never end.  There is no joy like the joy of “Our hands sharing God’s heart.”  The responders are so very appreciative and they express there genuine gratitude.  Some come off the fire line with 16 to 20 hours of hard work behind them. Some come off the line with throats so sore from breathing smoke that they can’t even swallow their soup.  

   There is a pervasive weariness in the air that is as thick as the smoke.  We are tired, too, but our feeding tent is a place of warm welcome, Ginger’s cheeriness and laughter, and really good food.

   They are making headway on the fire.  We saw many flare-ups on the mountain today but soon a giant air tanker would fly over and drop it’s massive load.  Black smoke turns to white smoke…and sometimes back to black a few minutes later.  Winds have been favorable and hope is returning to the community.  Some of the fire crews have been pulled out ad replaced with military detachments for mop-up operations.  We are the only feeders for the military at our command center and we have been told that they will remain for a few more days barring a major turn of events.  We may stay with this group until Friday or possibly be re-deployed to another line. Another option is refugee camps at a number of Churches in the area.  We will investigate this possibility further for a second team over the next couple of days.  More tomorrow.    

Kevin Martindale

Enjoy some more photos….

Today we arrived at the Incident Command Center in Vista, CA. where we were instructed to report to a staging ground for a particularly difficult fire in Valley Center, CA. We were excited to actually be deployed to a fire zone as we have discovered that without some kind of a connection volunteer efforts are not able to get into the Hot Zone arenas. We rejoiced at the fact that we were going to get to feed the Emergency Responders. We really had no idea what the Lord had in mind…

We arrived and set up our equipment at the field command center which is at the Fire Station and Sheriff Station in Valley Center. Valley Center is now home to a number of different camps of Emer.Resps. By the time we had the first pots of soup ready at 4:00pm we realized that we were not going to serve only one agency. By 8:00pm we had served over 200 meals to Sheriff, Local Fire Dept., State Patrol, CA. Dept. of Forestry, Army, National Guard, Marines, as well as civilians. All this in a four hour window. Sunday we will be there all day and anticipate over 1000 meals as this massive response continues to try and save this region from ravaging flames.

The danger these responders are facing is very real and very close. As we are serving meals citizenry are driving up to the Fire Station and asking for help as the fire moves toward their home and property. Some people are coming into town trying to get back to there homes in zones that are closed and do not know if they even have anything left. We are in the thick of it folks. Right where God wants us to be.

After serving this evening Ginger had a chance to speak with our hosts in the Fire and Sheriff Stations. They are very, very pleased with the job we are doing. We have been told to expect to work through Tuesday or Wednesday if conditions do not change for the worst, which is entirely possible. All it takes is a gust of wind in the wrong direction to ignite a whole new inferno. I have a feeling this will not be the last frontline deployment for Soup Ladies and Real Missions!

Enjoy these photos….

Kevin Martindale

http://www.ocregister.com/news/maps-small-utf-1902318-google-msa

This link takes you to a Orange County news website that details where the most active fires are and what ones are contained. The team is working the “Poomacha” fire.  Info on fire is pulled up when you click on the balloon.  It is the second red balloon north of Escondido.

   Here are a couple of highlights from our trip down to the California Wildfire Emergency Response. First of all we must acknowledge that this was a quick mobilization with many involved in order to allow us to leave ASAP on Thursday. My personal thanks go out to my employer Walt Miles, Miles Sand and Gravel, for believing in this effort and paying my wages while we take on the cause of feeding the brave men and women who are responding to this catastrophe.  This joint effort is just another in a line of cooperative ventures between the Maple Valley Soup Ladies and Real Life Church’s outreach organization, Real Missions.  

   We were blessed to have been the focus of a KCPQ channel 13 feature report as we were preparing to leave the staging area at Mama Passerelli’s Restaurant in Black Diamond, WA.  It was broadcasted on Thursday evening but you can view it on Q13fox.com.  We then stopped at Les Schwab and got a spare and rim for the trailer at a drastic discount.  Mike and Doug also re-wired our electrical trailer hitch plug in order to get rid of a short, for free. Props to the boys at Schwab for all their support over the years!

   Leaving Auburn at 12:15 pm we arrived in Roseville, (a suburb of Sacramento, CA.) to rest on a mid-trip break at the new and beautiful home of Jeff and Lisa Johnson.  Lisa was such a sport as we pulled in at 1:30 am Friday morning.  Jeff and Lisa moved from our congregation to Sacramento in April so, of course, we had to catch up.  We limped off to bed around 3:00! (Brutal!)

Hitting the phones all day on Friday during the drive down to the LA basin, we finally hit “paydirt” when the long line of connectivity led to a call from the San Diego County Sheriff asking us to report to the town of Vista, CA. to the incident commanders command post for deployment to the front lines of one of the stubborn fires burning in the rocky canyons East of Escondido, CA.

We are staying in a wonderful home owned by Mike and Patty Grable in Costa Mesa.  Mike and Patty were customers of Mama Passerelli’s about a month ago. As Ginger explained the ministry of the Soup Ladies, Mike and Patty spent time and prayed with her for blessing on all they did.  When we had just made the decision to respond, Ginger got a call from this couple offering us their residence while we were here.

Our faith is encouraged as we see God’s hand moving on our behalf. I know there will be more to report shortly.

Kevin Martindale

This blog is designed for all of you who wish to keep up to date with what is happening with our team.  Both Kevin and Ginger will be sending updates for all of us to read.  As well as pictures that we will be posting as well to this site.

We are currently taking standbys for a possible second team to be sent in the middle of this week (around October 31st).  If you would like to be added to this list, please email Dina Davis at DinaAnneDavis@gmail.com.  We also are working towards raising another $7000 in support to pay for the next week’s worth of food.  If you would like to make a donation, please go to www.RealLifeChurch.com, click on the “Online Giving” tab and select the “Southern CA Wildfire Relief Fund”.

We thank you for your prayers and support,

Clark Davis

Missions Director