My Worship Revolution

Several of you saw on Twitter what happened at our house tonight (last night now?) and said keep you updated. Hard to do in 140 characters, so thought I’d write a quick post. I’ll post more tomorrow with pictures.

The quick info if you missed it – our house caught on fire.

Our next-door neighbor invited us over for dinner.  We went over and enjoyed the evening with them.
About 5 minutes before we were planning to leave, James comes running through his house yelling, “Something’s going on at your house!”
He had smelled the smoke from his kitchen and looked out.
We ran out to see smoke coming out and hearing smoke alarms go off.

I heard Rachel tell me that James said not to open the door.
So naturally…I went straight to the door and flung it open.
We have (had?)a floor furnace I HATE.  When it runs, the metal grate can seriously burn the kids.
I had thrown a rug over it cause I thought it was off, but apparently the thermostat was low.  I figured that was the case so I thought I’d get the rug out and all would be good.

House was full of smoke from floor to ceiling.
James was behind me with a fire extinguisher.
I buried my head in my shirt and went in to put out the rug.  I got most of it out, but not all.
Ended up emptying 3 extinguishers.  Including a fire I noticed behind the Lazy Boy.

Right after that, the fire department showed up.
They went in, took care of it, and said it was contained.  The damage was contained to the hallway for the most part.
But they were also trying to get under the house to make sure it wasn’t going on under there.
And lots of smoke was still coming out for a while.  I knew something more was up.

Eventually we see them climb on the roof and start poking holes.
Suddenly TONS of smoke is pouring out and we start seeing some pretty big flames.

Long story short, the fire actually started under the house.
Apparently the wood down there got pretty dried out over the years.  The rug helped keep some heat in and that’s all it took for the wood to start burning.
It burnt under the floor back to our kids closet.  There was some remodel in there in the past, and there was some pipe that went up and wasn’t enclosed.  The fire traveled up that into the attic.

For the most part our stuff is OK.
The kids bedroom was pretty much engulfed.
That one is way gone.
The rest of the house is a mess.
Hallway is pretty much toast too.
Holes poked in ceilings, etc.  Like I said.  I’ll post some pics tomorrow.

Most important thing…Rachel and the boys are fine.
Not sure how Caleb’s gonna take his room being totally gone.
We’re at our neighbors house for tonight, and were already planning to head south for Thanksgiving.
Unfortunately, we can’t host the Monday Night Football party we had planned tomorrow night.
Now we’ll need to figure out where to stay for at least a couple months it looks like.
Fun stuff.

So that’s the update for y’all.
Truth be told, I’m a bit frustrated with it all and with life right now, but hopefully some sleep will improve that a touch.
Just this morning at Twin Oaks we talked a little about God churning our hearts in difficult times to prepare us for what He has and to see God glorified through it all.
So it’s another opportunity for God to work in our lives and for us to be satisfied in and with Him.  Period.
Doesn’t make it any more pleasant.  Ready for 2011 I think.
We’ll see what happens from here.
And as I promised, I’ll try to take some pics tomorrow.

It’s after 1am.
I ‘m going to bed.