My Experience As A Crisis and Disaster Responder in the Camp Fire of Paradise, California

Our guest post comes from Faith Mooney, a young Proverbs 31 Woman, World Traveler,  Entrepreneur, and Health and Wellness Coach.  Faith is a trained and certified crisis and disaster responder through Crisis Response International. 

Until now, I haven’t posted yet about my experience serving down in Paradise. A lot of you saw my Facebook Lives on the first day, while we were at the empty Toys’R Us building, distributing donations to families who had lost everything in the fire.

We had to get up at 6 AM just to drive down there before President Trump closed the roads to come to Paradise.

The smoke was so thick that I couldn’t take my respirator off all day, which made it hard to talk to people, so instead I did the grit work, helping to sort through clothes, toiletries, sleeping bags, blankets, and stuff like that.

It was so rewarding to see so many people ministered to just in the prayer tent alone, even being ministered simply by finding someone a toothbrush or some jeans.

It also touched my heart to see so many food trucks and taco trucks donating free dinners to both the families and the volunteers. There were some kind Sikhs with a Punjabi cuisine trailer who gave us some of the best free curry and naan for dinner, and even leftovers to take back to our base at Chico YWAM (since we didn’t have a lot of options to eat back at base).

It was pretty shocking and almost not even fathomable to see so many people who had lost their homes and barely escaped with their life. As a lot of you already know, the fire began in the very early morning, so many people had already turned their News off and had gone to bed and were trapped in the night.

It was hard during the days we were serving, getting updates about missing peoples’ numbers rising. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of believers to serve with on my team. Every early morning and evening we held our own private worship service at base camp, coming together and lifting up the Lord and seeing his Holy Spirit move everywhere.

It was an incredible experience to serve where I could and minister where the Lord put me, and it made me realize more that I truly feel this is my calling and what the Lord wants me to do.

Thank you to everyone here who have sent donations to Paradise Camp Fire and prayer warriors who have greatly made an impact.

– Psalm 23 –

THE LORD IS MY CHIEF HE HAS CHOSEN ME TO SERVE

HE LEADS ME TO STILL THE FIRES RAGING AROUND ME

HE RESTORES MY SOUL TO FIGHT EVEN WHEN ALL SEEMS LOST

HE HAS PREPARED FOR ME A PLACE IN LIFE DEDICATED TO SERVICE, HONOR, JOY

AND FELLOWSHIP

HE ANOINTS MY SOUL WITH COURAGE IN THE PRESENCE OF MY ENEMY FIRE!

YES EVEN THOUGH I WALK THROUGH LIFE

IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH I WILL FEAR NO FIRE FOR HE IS WITH ME

HIS STRENGTH WILL COMFORT ME

AND WHEN LIFE’S FINAL ALARM SOUNDS

I WILL DWELL IN THE STATION HOUSE OF

THE LORD FOREVER

AMEN!