I’ve been reporting on the Colorado wildfires for Christianity Today’s online news site the past couple of days (“Colorado Wildfires Threaten Navigators’ Camps,” “Evacuated Navigators Working From Focus on the Family Offices” and have learned a couple of things in the process: 1) God is good; 2) God protects His people; 3) Arson is bad; 4) Prayer works; 5) Miracles happen each and every day – if we’re open to looking for them.
Check out the map above: Eagle Lake Camp, one of The Navigators‘ ministry camp properties in Colorado Springs, is in the thick of the fire. Guess what? It’s surrounded on all four walls by flames, yet, the firefighters have managed to “hold the lines” and only one cabin has been lost.
“It’s a miracle not more has been burned of the camp – it’s surrounded on all sides,” Rachel Engle, daughter of Eagle Lake’s maintenance directors, said Tuesday night. “It’s just been insane – God has truly put up a wall of protection.”
Though 15,000 acres of the Colorado mountainside have been burned and 32,000 people have been displaced from their homes, no fatalities have yet occurred and the Navigators’ main ministry campsites have not been seriously negatively affected. Glen Eyrie, the Navigators’ historic conference center campsite located on the Southeast edge of the red on the map above, is directly threatened, but no flames have permeated buildings on-site (as far as we know as of late – check out continued news coverage on Fox).
Not only is God manifesting Himself with the protection of invisible walls around the camp, Christians are acting out the Gospel from the ground.
“Christians in town are doing a wonderful job of living out Matthew 5:16, letting their lights so shine that others would see their good works – gifts of money and food, homes and churches as shelters,” Evangelical Press Association president Dean Ridings said in a Wednesday press release. “Things are surreal and somewhat chaotic here – we’re trusting in the Lord, grateful that there have been no reported deaths or even injuries.”
In the midst of madness, miracles. And prayer for continued containment – according to Colorado officials, control of the blaze may not be happen until mid-July.