25 Families

Today marks the first day where 25 families will have awakened in an unfamiliar place: hotels with blank walls and beds with stiff mattresses. Yesterday, I awoke to a text message from one of my students informing me a building near by was a-blaze. Unsure what to expect, and honestly not anticipating anything of depth, I pulled the shades to a literal cloud of smoke. His text was valid, and the reality a stones throw away was even more valid.

Yesterday, a local building in Port Alberni went to battle against a fire that won without contest, destroying the homes of more than 25 families. It's easy to hear about something like this is a large city, it's even expected. But when a fire devastates an entire apartment complex in a small and more rural community, a sure mourning covers the entire people.

It's these moments where all barriers of who we are as people can so easily be removed. I think as a Christian, it's these very moments that display something we're constantly striving for as a God believing community. When someone's home is taken away by something such as fire, or wind, or water, or any other natural cause, human kind immediately reaches out and supports those people without hesitation or question. Clothes, used beds, dressers, toys, and so much more suddenly erupt from the woodwork as a community sympathizes for someone else's loss. And this is precisely what is meant by the "Church". This is a constant strive from the body of believers. Do we always do a great job of this? Absolutely not. Even maybe the opposite. But, there is a movement of sympathy, both locally and globally back to this organic community that is established by the perfect love of Christ.

So as this day of mourning continues, I pray for those people who have lost their home. But this day will pass, and my prayer is longer than just today. I hope as a Church we can continue to discover what it means to continually restore this broken world; as a community we can continue to live the resurrection of Jesus Christ.