A Christian response to the Fires of Northern California

My dad said that a guy in church asked him if the sky covered in smoke had anything to do with the Apocalypse.

To some of you it may seem like a dumb question, but he sincerely meant it, and that's fine.

I think it's important that Christians be ready to take the lead in helping others during times of disaster. This means we need to help people answer 2 questions--"Why is this happening?" and "Where do I start fixing my life?" Insurance companies call these "acts of God," and we need to treat them as such. These are acts of a sovereign God who allowed them to happen so that His glory and renown would be advanced.

I took the picture on the left in early May. I thought it interesting that as our campfire died, a cross was left in the smoldering embers.

Isn't that how life--especially in times of disasters--should look like? When the fire is almost burned out, in the aftermath of people's lives burning up or burning out, the cross will remain. And we are to take up our cross and follow Jesus and be there for people.

Any church in the immediate area of any type of disaster needs to see how it can help others. Not by waiting for people to come to them, but by proactively seeking out those whose lives have been affected by disaster.

I have a real passion for relief ministry, stemming from wanting to go to Thailand after the 2004 Tsunami, and then through experiencing that sort of ministry in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina for 5 weeks while helping on missions trips.

I heard about churches in Chico and Paradise that opened their doors to evacuees from recent fires there. I heard about a huge church in a brand new multi-million dollar building that became an evacuation center in San Diego last year just months after opening their doors. They were afraid that their nice stuff would get damaged, but knew that God would have them do that, so they did it.
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Part of me wishes that some of these fires were a little closer to home so I could do something to help. Part of me wishes that there was an earthquake, because that would definitely affect us. I recognize though, that those types of natural disasters are less accommodating to volunteer help than things like floods and hurricanes. For awhile I've thought about going to the Red Cross and becoming a first responder or something like that. The Red Cross for Sonoma and Mendocino Counties is located about a half mile from my house.

Maybe now is the time to move past just thinking about it.

I realize that Mendocino County is one of the hardest hit counties by the fires, along with Humboldt, Lake, and Shasta (Redding people, are you all still alive?). So, maybe the office will be crazy busy. But, I should do something about it anyway.

I don't want to waste my life.

Fires part 2

Here's a picture I took of the moon last night. Usually the moon is red like this when it's low, and it almost always has to be full, but this time, it was pretty high, half full, and still really red. It's definitely because of the smoke.

I just read that there have been 1,024 fires in Northern California since Saturday. This morning in the newspaper, it was talking about how Mendocino County has 136 fires, and 46 had zero firefighters on them. That is because there are some really big ones, and almost every county around has a lot of fires (besides us here in Sonoma County, who just get everyone's smoke).

Anyway, a lot of landowners are supposedly hiring private firefighting crews. The government won't send firefighters to fight fires unless homes are in jeopardy, since that is more important, and they have to pick and choose.

Of course, if you own a timber company in Mendocino County, then you kind of need to keep your trees alive.

Or, if you are a pot-farmer.

I'm pretty sure that millions of dollars of marijuana will be destroyed by these fires. That is saving the state money since the cops won't have to bust people.

I wonder if firefighting or pot-busting is more expensive.

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Apparently the smoke from the 146 fires in Mendocino County is all blowing south, and the big fire in Napa County created smoke on Sunday that all blew East. So breathing is pretty hard here. Officially, the air is "Unhealthy for sensitive groups." I have never heard of Santa Rosa having anything but a "Good" rating by the EPA.

At least there are no nearby fires...yet.

The forecast for this weekend is more lightning and still no rain, so that means hundreds of more fires, probably.

Currently I have to make sure I don't go outside with an empty stomach. The smoke smell is so intense here that if I do, I get nauseous. In Lake County, the roads are shut down because people can't see the Fire Engines or the animals that have run out of the forest to safety.

That makes me think of, "Get up Bambi! Get up!"

I kind of want to drive to Lake County, but I'm pretty sure that is a very stupid decision.

I would like to go to the different ares of Northern California and see which areas have the worst smoke.

Fires part 1

It's been smoky for 4 days now. Those hills are a half mile away and it's so hazy they look to be miles from here. I get sick to my stomach when i go outside and breathe in the smoke.

Coldplay

I like this cd. A lot. I think i've listened to it 50 times already. It's the album i've been wanting someone to make since late 2006. This is mobile blog number 2.

stupid mouse, dead gophers

My mouse is dead. I am referring to my computer mouse, not a mammal. It sucks. It keeps ceasing to function in the middle of things. Then it starts back up again.

I built my computer last summer. It's great. But I didn't buy a new mouse or keyboard, and both of those have seen many years, a few moves to college and back, and been pretty abused.

I bought a $100 keyboard and mouse on ebay. After the cheap bid, the 10% off that ebay is doing, and the giftcard I had for filming my friends' wedding, I got it for $30.01. Sweet.

Speaking of dead rodents, a few weeks ago, we were clearing a field of some rocks at church. Dennis, who is over 60 years old, was driving the tractor, and 4 times he jumped off the tractor and stomped on a gopher that had climbed up.

One of the gophers was about a foot long. They rear up on their hind legs, and start hissing.

Seriously, despite the funny caption, this is what they look like:



Dennis had steel workboots on, but the gophers still survived a few stomps usually. In fact, one of them survived long enough that I had to give it one last stomp to kill it.

Puma Romas aren't nearly as thick as workboots, so I felt the gopher under my foot and rolled my ankle a little as I ended its life.

I felt manly.

OK, back to fixing my computer (not so manly).

Yellow Submarine

In the time that Julie and I have been dating, the majority of our days have been spent miles apart. We were long distance starting about 2 weeks into our relationship, and ending under a month ago.

So we talked on the phone.... a lot.

Sometime around January, Julie started something new when we were multi-tasking. When you're having a 2 or 3 hour conversation on a daily basis, you often have to do other things while talking (yes I am justifying my multi-tasking). When I multi-task, I tend to leave long pauses in the conversation. So, to fill the blank, she would start whistling.

For some reason, she would always whistle "Yellow Submarine" by the Beatles. Now, 5 months later, I hear the song "Yellow Submarine" on average more than once a day. It's still usually while we're on the phone.

The other day I was on the phone and laying in bed after I should have gotten up. She started whistling. I got up right away. That song is far more annoying than an alarm clock, and while I might hit snooze on my clock, there is no way I would just hang up on Julie. I guess I will have to take her on a yellow submarine sometime.

Blogging from my Cell Phone...attempt #2

A few months ago, I tried to set it up so I could blog from my cell phone. I finally was able to do it. So here's a picture I took with my phone last fall.

You may wonder why I would take a picture of something that is normal to the average consumer.

However, to the lactose intolerant person (such as myself), the words "Xplosive pizza" and "blasted" have a completely different connotation.

I want to live downtown Part 1

I have wanted to live downtown in a big city in a tall building for a long time. I think it's from watching Frasier, Seinfeld, and Friends on TV back in the early 2000s. I loved the idea of having 20' windows and being able to see the skyline.

When I was around 5 to 7 years old, my grandparents lived in an apartment in Honolulu that was pretty high up, and you could see down the slope of the island towards Waikiki and downtown Honolulu. I loved it.

Today I was reading an article about how our generation is leaving the suburbs because we all want to live in cities where we can walk and ride mass transit to work instead of commuting.

It says at the end that by the year 2025 there will be a surplus of 22 million large-lot homes in the US. What will happen is the middle and upper classes will have moved into the cities, forcing up housing costs there as demand rises, and so the poor will now be living in these huge houses in the suburbs.

You think about how much gas will cost by then (assuming we're still driving oil-powered cars) and you can see how it will affect the poor.

It's so weird to think about.

It's also weird to think that churches that exist in suburbs today are going to be the equivalent of today's inner-city churches in about 15 years (as far as demographics go).

Granted, the article could be wrong, and it's just guesswork, but I am a stereotypical millennial who wants to live downtown to save on gas, save the environment, and because the TV made it look cool.

Partnerships: The Church Helping the State

A few months ago, I was at the Thrive Conference at Bayside Church, and I sat in on a seminar about how to create partnerships with local civic organizations, such as schools, Child Protective Services, and other government agencies.

The day before, I had gone to a lunch where I learned about how a few churches have done some of that with their communities.

A few weeks later, the churches in our area partnered with the town of Windsor to help clean up the parks.

I think it's really great for Churches to find ways to help local government do things that we both care about. Sure, you can't talk about Jesus when you are working with the government, but I don't feel that it is watering down the gospel if you are loving people as you love yourself.

I recently read an article about how a church in Chicago partnered with the city to offer safe surrender to non-violent fugitives. Over 5,000 people showed up to surrender to criminal charges in exchange for favorable consideration in court. That is some serious advertising for that church and for The Church.

Blogging Christians

Even though I have recently discovered that the author is a pretty strong atheist, I like the comic strip Bizarro. I saw this one a few weeks ago, and thought it to be blogworthy. I don't have anything to say about it.

The Wedding I Went to Today

Today I got to see my friends Isaac and Dannielle get married. It was a really great wedding. In fact, it was the best wedding I've ever been to. I think it's partly because it was just a beautiful day and location, partly because the reception wasn't dreadfully long, partly because I am engaged, and partly because Ike and I have been friends for almost 5 years (and not just "I-know-you" friends, but real friends who have had fun and serious conversations, prayed together, come up with ideas together for deep things and stupid things). But mostly I loved the wedding because I've never seen a bride and groom whose love for each other was so evident through a ceremony.

I've written in other blogs how sometimes weddings make me uncertain of the future of the bride and groom (if you click on the "weddings" tag, you'll probably be able to read about some), but in this case it was so nice to just be so confident that these 2 people love each other and are living for the glory of God and it's so obvious.

Eric and I got to film their wedding, so we will be putting it together in the next few weeks/months, and I'm looking forward to giving it to them. Hopefully doing some weddings for friends and friends of friends, etc. will eventually lead to a real video business where we actually make money and I can legitimately call myself "bivocational" instead of "part time," which sounds a lot less cool and a lot more poor.

Joshiani

Back in February, I got to see my friends, Larry and Krista Lain and their 2 kids, Averiana and Eli. The Lains are moving to Mongolia soon as development workers with CAMA.

I knew the Lains from when we lived in Redding and were both going to the Stirring. And, then I got to go to New Orleans and Baton Rouge with them for a week, and then work with them after they moved there. They worked with the FEMA villages and the evacuees from Hurricane Katrina.

Apparently, sometime in the last few years, Averi has decided that my name is now "Joshiani," which is a combination of "Josh" and "Ratiani."

So, when I found all that out, I told Julie about it, and she said, "Oh, my name will be Juliani!"

That was especially funny because Rudy Giuliani was still running for president at the time. We didn't really share the new nickname, since we weren't publicizing yet that we had decided to get married. It's a funny nickname for Julie, so I thought I should share it with the world now that the world knows she will soon be Julie Ratiani. She's most likely the only "Juliani" in the whole world.

How we got engaged

Well...I figured I should write on my blog that I got engaged last Friday night. Also, I figured it would be good to talk about how I did it. So, here it is.

A couple weekends ago, I made plans with Julie's dad to talk to him about marrying her. I had jury duty on the 27th (a Tuesday, the day after Memorial Day). So, since I figured I might be selected, I would have to meet with him on Saturday morning. He was going to be in Santa Rosa for a meeting anyway, so it would work out fine.


On Monday, the 26th, Julie moved to Santa Rosa. On Tuesday, the 27th, I reported for jury duty, and got out of it. It was a 3-week trial for statutory rape. Over a year and a half period, the man allegedly had sex with a girl under 14 years old at least 3 times.

So it, was going to be a long trial, and I managed to be excused. I drove to Julie's apartment, and thought that it would be good to talk to her dad earlier than Saturday so I could propose on Friday when she wasn't expecting it.

I talked myself out of it, then that night, I wanted to again. Wednesday I woke up and thought I didn't really need to rush it, especially since when I called to check on our ring, they told me it might not be ready until Saturday.

Wednesday night, I really wanted to propose on Friday, so I asked my sister for ideas. We checked citysearch.com for "romantic dining" and found a restaurant called Cityscape in San Francisco.

Thursday, I woke up and called Julie's dad. He agreed to meet in Fairfield on Friday morning. Fairfield is about halfway between Santa Rosa and Woodland, where Julie's parents live. That afternoon, I got a call that the ring was ready. I spent the evening lying to Julie about my proposal plans and also mixing some truth in. We talked about my lack of skill as a liar. Little did she know how good I was getting at it. I pretty much told her my whole plan mixed in with other things, and she didn't suspect it that much.

So, on Friday morning, while I was "sleeping in" I went to Fairfield. Julie's dad wasn't even thinking of the fact that Julie's first house was in Fairfield when he chose the meeting place. So, he got to drive past her childhood home and sit outside before we met. That was really cool that he got to do that.

After we talked, I drove back to Santa Rosa and picked up the ring. She had a temp job for the day, so we headed down to the city right after she got off work.

On the way down I told her I was nervous about talking to her dad the next morning and asked her what she thought we should talk about. This was the best lie I told in the whole thing.

We got to Cityscape while it was still light out. Julie loves tall buildings, cities, and overcast weather. Check out how great it was.


This was the view of downtown. That is the Bank of America building all the way at the left. We could see all the way over to Coit Tower, and my view was mostly to the southeast, so I could see the Giant's stadium, where there was a game. I joked that it was like being at Applebee's--I could pretend to listen to her while I watched the game.


When I made the reservation, I told them that I would be proposing after dinner and would like a window seat to set the mood. They threw in a little extra and seated us at a table (table 17) with a "broken light."

A waiter came out as it was getting dark and said, "Your light is out, so here are some candles so you can see."

Julie said, "You planned that, right?" and smiled.

The waiter got a bit nervous and left. I think he thought he gave away the surprise.

Obviously they planned to have the light out. A nice restaurant would never seat guests at a table with a broken light. The ceilings are 20 feet, so either they have individual switches, went through a lot of work to turn out our light, or only seat special requests at that table.

At dinner I told Julie that the whole point of this date was to get back into being able to go on dates often and start off with a bang. So I had a decent excuse for having an expensive date.

The food was pretty good, and the view was great. I hadn't figured out how to propose yet. I left the ring in my jacket pocket in the trunk, along with a boquet of flowers. I was planning on getting my jacket when we got out at either the Treasure Island lookout or at the Marin County side of the Golden Gate Bridge. We had been both places on the way back from the airport back when we were long distance (the season which so far has constituted the vast majority of our relationship).

But right before we left, I realized that the restaurant was only a few blocks from Union Square, and when we were up there, I could see the square and thought it would be a great place to propose.

So, after dinner, I called my parents and asked if the square was nice at night while Julie went into the bathroom to change out of her dress into something warmer. They thought I should just drive by it and decide. I was planning on doing that anyway, so that's what we did.

We got out to the parking lot and I pulled the flowers out of the trunk and gave them to her before we drove to the square.

As we drove, I said, "Remember how I told you that I always wanted to be romantic and now that I have you I finally can be? Well I don't feel like I've done a very good job while we've been apart, so I am really excited to be able to start doing that again." That statement is entirely true, but it also is a great excuse for me being so over the top, and to limit her suspicion that I would propose.

We drove past the square and I saw the red heart from the old "Hearts in San Francisco" art project. The square was pretty empty, and I knew it was the place. We parked and got out. I didn't know which corner the heart was on, so we walked to the middle of the park. I thought about how marriage is a union, and how it was Union Square.

I found the heart, and we walked toward it. I pretended to be surprised the heart was there. There was a man playing saxophone across the street, in front of the Disney Store. Julie loves the saxophone. She plays it.

The saxophone is my least favorite instrument.

I told Julie to stand by the heart so I could take a picture. I told her that I needed to back up to get the heart in the shot. I turned around to walk farther back, and pulled the ring box out while I was facing the other way.

I turned back towards her and took this picture. She said she tried to make a bad face because she hates it when I take pictures of her by herself when I should be in them. Of course, I would never take a picture of her by herself in front of a heart. But she didn't have time to think about that.
Even though that's not a very good picture, we have to keep it and share it with friends, because that was just seconds before I asked her to marry me. I walked towards her as if to show her the picture. I was holding the ring box in the other hand. I knelt down and said, "Julie will you marry me?"

Her first reaction was, "Shut up. There is no way."

Then, "Did you ask my dad?"
"Yes."
"When?"
"This morning." I was smiling ear-to-ear the whole time.
She pulled me to my feet and said, "Absolutely yes."

I put the ring on her finger, and then we took some pictures by the heart. They didn't come out great, but we kept them anyway.

Afterwards, we headed back over the Golden Gate Bridge to the north lookout. I told her what I talked to her dad about and how I planned the parts I planned, and how I did so much of it spontaneously, which I am quite proud of. While we were there, the Giants' game finally ended, and a fireworks show started. From where we were, the city skyline blocked some of the fireworks, so we got a silhouette of the city with a fireworks backdrop. The fog blocked the top half of the really huge explosions. It was a perfect San Francisco ending to our night.

One of the little great things is that the next day I found out how the game ended. The Giants lost in extra innings, which is why the fireworks show happened right when it happened (while we were watching). And in the seventh inning, the Giants pulled off a triple play. That is one of the rarest plays in sports. The Giants have only had 7 of them since they moved to San Francisco in 1954. So, the triple play affected the outcome of the game, and helped send it to extra innings, which delayed the fireworks until just as we were watching the SF skyline.

I was telling my friend Craig about all of that, and he said, "That just confirms that God is in this when you see all these little things lining up so perfectly." I hadn't really thought about that, but yeah it does. I love it. I love God so much. And I love Julie so much too.