“Purposeful Brokenness” “Because life challenges us with episodes of loss, we must become skilled and committed to handling all of life from the perspective of what we call purposeful brokenness. God’s grace operates in our brokenness
with the long view in mind, while actively, intimately embracing His sons and daughters in a lasting embrace day by day.” -from The Way of Hope, Growing Close to God through Loss Many we met in Paradise, California, were broken and seeking answers to life, desiring to trust a living God as they moved forward. With God even tragedy can have meaning in horrendous loss. Others who weren’t ready to seek God in their loss were being drawn closer to Christ. In addition to what by His design provided, the church we were partnering with demonstrated an unconditional love for people, with no expectation of getting anything in return.
The ten days we spent at Magalia Pines Baptist Church was both exhausting and exhilarating because we could visibly see how our God of undeniable mercy and grace was using all of the team of volunteers to re-create community daily. “The church we had before the fire is not the church we have
now,” Pastor Doug commented. He’s spent the last 25 years at this place and is uniquely qualified by a lifetime of experience and training to be used in this resurrection. When we got there, this small church who’d lost most of their members due to the devastation, was providing home-cooked meals twice a day and other practical help to hundreds. They’ve been doing this for several months now.
The ongoing collection of household goods that people can apply for is being housed in the church’s auxiliary building formerly used for children’s ministry.