Slave Lake

When I was younger I always wanted to help people. Throughout the years of getting married and having kids the passion may have faded but it never fully went away. Ever since "Be The Church" became our vision I have looked at what everyone else was doing and often felt a tinge of jealousy that I couldn't find my unique way of "Being the Church". It's funny really because even Blaine knows my passion but he ever so nicely informs me that he will not be moving to Africa any time soon. for a long time I have had this yearning and every time I heard of someones idea or someones leading I felt cheated and wondered what my calling was.

On May 15 most of us awoke and began our normal routine of getting the kids ready, having breakfast, reading the paper and what ever else we may do before going to church. Little did we know that in a few short hours a town four hours north of us would soon be facing panic and devastation.

To be honest I am so used to hearing about forest fires that I tuned out the "Slave Lake Fires" and never paid much attention. Soon though, the news spread and most were aware of the destruction this Fire Storm caused. Never once did the thought of helping out cross my mind. That is until the Friday morning before the long weekend when I checked my emails while getting the kids ready for school and myself for work. Samaritans Purse needed 20 volunteers to go to Slave Lake for Sunday. I immediately requested more information and talked with Blaine and other family members about going. Within a few short hours I was awaiting a reply from Samaritans Purse. With us leaving to go to Valley View for the long weekend there was little time to make sure that this was what I was intended to do however late Saturday I received confirmation and within 24 hours I was leaving Valley View and headed to Slave Lake. It was not an easy start. I got some mixed messages from people as to leaving our kids and the choice I was making. To top it off the minute I pulled out of the driveway the check engine light went on and a part of me wondered if these were all signs saying that I shouldn't be going. In determination I said a little prayer and told God that if he didn't want me going than he would need to make my truck actually stop running and not just warn me with a check engine light.

2 and half hours later I was approaching Slave Lake. At first I would see burnt forest and think "I've got to be close now" and then everything would turn green again for a fair distance. This would keep reoccurring and it wasn't until I approached the road blocks and saw the sings that read "God Bless You! We will rebuild" that I knew I had arrived. As I rolled into town it was like something off of an apocalyptic movie. Everything was hazy and the smell of smoke filled the air. As I looked to the right I could see a helicopter taking off with a fire bucket underneath and two other helicopters with the same buckets off in the distance. buildings, gas stations and stores were all closed. There were Esencial Service helpers everywhere. The hotels had dozens of porta potties outside because their sewer systems were down. There was no cable in the rooms and we were told not to shower or drink the water. At that point the threat of May long weekend being the end of the world became ever so real to me. I soon questioned what I was doing there and quickly thought of home.

The next morning I met up with the Samaritans Purse crew and learned that only 8 of us actually committed to coming. Their intention of us cleaning burned houses was quickly diminished and we were told that we would be stationed in logistics. I was kind of disappointed. I spend every day in the office I wanted to do something different here. I wanted to do "manly" work. We were given our bright orange T shirts and brought to one of many rooms in the Lake West College. As soon as I walked in, the room was bustling with activity. There were desks placed along the walls with huge sticky "post its" filled with numbers of Essential Services contacts covering every white, blank space available. Everyone had a phone and a job and was noisily at work. I was immediately put to work entering Data. There were RCMP road blocks and if your name was not on my list you were not getting through. I had stacks upon stacks of names to enter and people shouting out names to me, asking if they were on my list while more people were shouting out names that needed to be on my list mediately. By eight o clock we were finally done and headed to the Samartians Purse hotel room to talk about our day and to pray. In 4 days I put in 49 hours of staring at a computer. Lunch and Dinners were usually only 15 min if that and were sometimes eaten at our desks. Within my 4 days I went from Data entry to booking hotel rooms for Essential Services and Businesses to Housing which was filling out forms for families who lost their homes completely. Since families were not allowed into town I communicated with towns people very little. I did however get to work along side two very wonderful ladies one of which lost her entire house and car. It amazed me that they were there every day 8 hours a day with smiles on their faces. They were grateful to still have their families and the clothes on their backs.

On day two there was excitement running through the many offices as news was spread through out that while Fire Fighters were cleaning a certain basement they found enough pictures and treasures to fill a small box.

Occasionally Samaritans Purse would approach us asking to save a hotel room because another volunteer couple was on their way. later that day or even the next it was brought to our attention that they cancelled and decided not to come after all. Only two days in and two of our team members had emotional break downs and were sent back to their rooms to rest. The time that I spent with Samaritans Purse was very little but on the night before we left we had a short meeting and our team leader expressed how this was nothing like what he expected or what they intended for us and how proud of us they were for making the best we could in this situation.

At the end of the week as I was leaving town I was finally able to look around, to see the destruction, to see the events of the evacuation enfolding in my mind, to imagine what once was of this empty town. Some may wonder or ask why families didn't leave sooner. I have been pondering this lots lately. How does anyone pack their life away in a few short hours? How do you decide what is important and what is not? Something that means the world to me may mean nothing to you. How easy is it really to say goodbye to the house that you may have lived in all your life? Sure it is all materialistic things but these "things" are sometimes all anyone has or has ever known. Some may think there that there are tons of people helping so why do they need more? When I first sat down at that desk there were 1400 people let past the road blocks of the RCMP. 90% of those people were Essential Services - Atco gas, Waste Management, Telus, Water testers, animal control, firefighters and so forth. Out of 1400 people there was one team from Red cross and one team from Samaritans purse alongside towns people begging to help rebuild the town they once knew.



A part of me will always be in that make shift Logistics room surrounded by stacks of paper, sticky notes, phones ringing and people ordering obscene amounts of supplies . A part of me will always be with the amazing people and teams from Calgary that I worked alongside while part of me will always be here with you waiting to be used in the next destruction that will impact those we love.