Santiago Canyon Fire

My friend, Michael Bischof, just emailed asking for prayer:

As you might know, the So Cal fires are really bad, and the Santiago Canyon Fire is now upon our neighborhood. It is surrounding the community of Foothill Ranch where we live, and there doesn't seem to be enough fire crews or air support to fight it effectively at this point. We have packed up our cars and are ready to evacuate.

Would you take a moment to please pray for our community as well as the many others being impacted by this horrendous fire season.

Take a moment and pray for Michael, his community of Foothill Ranch and others in So Cal who are affected by the fires.

[update from Michael at 8:30pm ...

The fire ended up around 4:00pm coming through the trailhead canyon that is behind the houses right across the street from us. We were told if it did we would need to evacuate. There is so much fuel in this canyon (brush, shrubs, huge oak trees, etc.) we knew it would be bad. It came through very quickly and we evacuated as we saw it coming. In tears and exhausted we drove away wondering if we would ever be back.

Other neighbors stayed. After being gone at my mom's apartment in Mission Viejo for about an hour, we called some of those neighbors who said the fire had worked its way through the canyon and for the most part climbed the ridge on the opposite side of the canyon. Our neighbors right across the street had a palm tree in their back yard catch fire . . . but that was the worst of it.

So we're back home tonight, though there are still many patches of fire burning that we can see. The firemen said it should be fine, and that they would be here for the next two weeks!

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thankfully, the crises in Michael's neighborhood seems to be past.