For those of you who haven't heard: On March 9th, 2010, Craig and Gwynne Funston watched their family home burn to the ground. Living at home are daughter Kendra (20's), sons Layne - 19, Drew - 17, Seth - 15, Kyle - 12, Abel - 10, Silas - 7. They are located in southern Alberta near Foremost. This is the second fire to destroy their family home in 5 years.
Message from eldest daughter, Kendra:
Thank you for your prayers and encouragement. Under the circumstances we are doing well, friends have taken us in for now - the same ones that kept us after the last one. We so appreciate everyone's prayers, it is wonderful to see the rallying of God's people to our need. We are thankful that it happened while we were all together and not asleep in our beds; and thankful that all of our lives were spared. Drew, Seth, and I were even able to rescue a few things before it was too dangerous to be in the house. If we had realized sooner that the whole house would go, we would have grabbed more (hindsight is always clearer). Layne called 911 immediately and the volunteer fire fighters came within half an hour. There are many what ifs we can think of but God allowed things to happen the way they did for his purposes.
We were eating supper together when it started. One of my brothers had an old woodstove that he was using to work with metal (heating and pounding - blacksmith type work, a wonderful hobby it seemed). Sometimes he smells of smoke when he comes in but Tuesday night Dad and Mom suddenly smelled a stronger smoke smell - Dad got up to look out the computer room window to check on the old garage and at that moment the flames burst above the roof. The guys all raced outside to see what they could do - pull some things out, throw water on it... Mom has always been sensitive to fires and when she saw the flames she went weak and wasn't able to do anything. We tried to get the garden hose going but it was frozen, so we tried dumping buckets out the upstairs windows to protect the house siding but that was ineffectual. (The "old garage" is only 10 feet from the house, it was a garage for the other "dead" house).
Shortly before the fire trucks arrived the roof of our house caught fire. They almost got the fire out while it was only in the top story but ran out of water before it could be completely contained and put out. By the time the empty water truck had refilled and returned the main floor was engulfed and the whole house was doomed. It was a horrible feeling to see that the flames had reached by bedroom on the other side of the house, and then a horrible feeling to see that the main floor was also gone.
That night the Collins took the three youngest boys home, and Josts have had the three older boys for the last several nights, and Mom and Dad and I are at the Roberts' home (the same place we all stayed at for a week after our last fire). There are two possibilities for a temporary/rental home near Foremost. We are hoping to decide on one of them soon and move to it early next week. Weekend in the Word is scheduled for next weekend and we are continuing with that plan. It is going to be our biggest WW yet with 140 people. Everyone in the church has been so good about opening their homes to the young people, and even more generous now that we are unable to take any ourselves and have much more to think about.
I was able to rescue our computers, photo albums, and some files/papers (coincidentally including the insurance claim file from last time - it will be a huge help in remembering what we had). We all feel more equipped to deal with life having a few of our own things. But there is still much we will need to get once we have a place to live in. Through friends and the Red Cross we have our material needs taken care of for the next week or so (clothing, housing).
Thank you so much for your prayers. They have helped us get through these last couple days.
Kendra
No comments:
Post a Comment