A Close Call and My Anniversary Giveaways

My family in the Philippines experienced one of the greatest, if not the greatest of God’s miracles thus far, that of sparing our Antipolo home from fire.  It was a close call indeed, so close that our neighbor’s house, the one to the very right of ours, was burned to the ground.  Here’s the story…

At around 10pm last Saturday, a neighbor rang the doorbell to let the people in our house know that the house right next door to ours is on fire.  How do you react to something like that?  My Mom, all four of my brother’s children, Amor (Abby’s yaya turned girl Friday of my Mom’s) and a new househelp were all at home.  My Mom told me they didn’t know what to do.  They all just went out of the house right away with nothing but the clothes on their back.  Amor managed to send my brother, Edward, who was attending a wedding with my SIL, Claire, a text message informing him of what was happening.

Edward and his family are all INC (Iglesia ni Cristo).  He immediately informed their central church and his mother-in-law so they can help alert fire stations.  And thanks to them, firefighters were at the site in no time.  Eight fire trucks came from Quezon City and Rizal.  Edward and Claire also made it to the house in a matter of a few minutes considering they came from somewhere in Asturias. 

The burning house was empty when the fire happened.  The owners came home only after receiving news of the fire.  Unfortunately, there was no more house for them to come home to.  The fire was put under control before it could spread to the other houses.

My Mom didn’t see the actual extent of the fire until the next day when the sun was finally up.  It is her room and my brother’s  which were next to the house that burned down and from her window, she saw that nothing was left.  The fire not spreading further is truly the work of God.  We were so close to losing our home, too.

There’s so much to be thankful for, really.  We thank God that this happened at around 10pm when people aren’t quite asleep yet.  What could have happened if the fire occurred in the wee hours of the morning is just unthinkable.  We thank God for the neighbor who rang the doorbell to let our household know what was happening.  We thank God that it wasn’t windy.  Edward’s cellphone was already low on battery when he received Amor’s message and we thank God that Edward got Amor’s text just before his phone lost all battery power.  We thank God at how quickly Tita Baby (Edward’s MIL) and the INC Central Church were able to alert fire stations.  We thank God that the fire fighters arrived right away.  We thank God at how the neighbors all worked together to help in the fire fighting efforts.  We thank God that nobody got hurt.

I pray for our neighbors who lost their home.  I was told they were supposed to travel to the US next month.  But obviously, they can’t do that now, at least, not just yet.  I pray that God heals them from the hurt this grave loss has brought them and that soon, they may rebuild their house.

We all know too well that just as God gives, He takes, too…and then gives back again.  I’ve already said once before that God has taken “big ticket items” from us.  And we thank Him for not taking our home, because frankly, we have too much on our plate right now.  Not that we’re complaining.    We are a good sport, that much I can tell you.  We’ve mastered the art of keeping the faith and holding on real tight as we ride through the sometimes rough rapids of life.  We’ve been bombarding God with prayers and petitions with such urgency lately, so much so that He probably thinks we’re doubting Him and that we’re being overly impatient.  This great miracle is one of the ultimate manifestations of His presence, as if to tell us that He’s here, He’s listening and with Him, nothing is impossible.  We just can’t help but look forward to the best that is to come.  And that’s what excites me!

oOo

I, of course, wouldn’t leave you with that heavy bit of news.   That’s just not me.  Hee hee.  I had a little game which went on a week or so in celebration of my 3 years of blogging.  I did say that 10 people will get a little something from me but I’ve decided to just include everyone who left me a message as this is a snail mail project of sorts anyway.  That way, I can spread more love.  Hee hee.  I finished making the cards yesterday…

This is the part where I come clean and tell you right out that this is my first attempt at crafting cards so you’ll have to excuse the toddlerish quality.  No offense to toddlers!   I did try to personalize the cards though.  Promise.  I will also send a cutesy notebook to 3 people.  I chose people who have touched my blogging life in a special way.  Surprise na lang kung sino.   

I will be emailing all of you 14 recipients within the day for mailing addresses and to personally thank you for partying with me.  So Meeya, JenB, Abby, Feng, Joy, Tita Myra, Ela, Odette, Keith, Jen, Gracie, Thess, BlueP and Tin, you’ll hear from me within the day.   Thank you!

With that, I wish you all a great week.  Don’t play with matches, ok?

God bless, y’all!