Surviving Wildfires, Part 4 of 4

Christian lives in Amarillo, TX. She's also one of my wife’s best friends. For the past couple weeks, the area’s been just crushed by wildfires. Last week, she and her husband were forced to evacuate their home with flames devouring their neighborhood. Their story will be shared here in four installments over the next four days. It's a lens through which to view a bigger tragedy ... and through which to find something unbelievable in such a time as this: Joy. 

Surviving Wildfires | Part 4 of 4
by Christian Bressler, as told to Brandon Sneed

I could have kissed the ground. The house was there. It was covered in ash. Everything was, including the grass, which was why I didn’t actually kiss it. And the house reeked of smoke, but it was undamaged. We figured that the wind somehow blew ash even inside, because it covers computers, dressers, tables, the floor. But they were still there to be covered.

We walked out into the backyard. The fire had stopped halfway through the yard. A few feet further, it catches the house, and the house is gone.

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Surviving Wildfires, Part 3 of 4

Christian lives in Amarillo, TX. She's also one of my wife’s best friends. For the past couple weeks, the area’s been just crushed by wildfires. Last week, she and her husband were forced to evacuate their home with flames devouring their neighborhood. Their story will be shared here in four installments over the next four days. It's a lens through which to view a bigger tragedy ... and through which to find something unbelievable in such a time as this: Joy. 

Surviving Wildfires | Part 3 of 4
by Christian Bressler, as told to Brandon Sneed

Halfway back to Lake Tanglewood, my phone rang. Grandpa.

“I’m home.”

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Surviving Wildfires, Part 2 of 4

pic courtesy Christian BresslerChristian lives in Amarillo, TX. She's also one of my wife’s best friends. For the past couple weeks, the area’s been just crushed by wildfires. Last week, she and her husband were forced to evacuate their home with flames devouring their neighborhood. Their story will be shared here in four installments over the next four days. It's a lens through which to view a bigger tragedy ... and through which to find something unbelievable in such a time as this: Joy. 

Surviving Wildfires | Part 2 of 4
by Christian Bressler, as told to Brandon Sneed

With the fire devouring fields and homes, we waited fifteen minutes that lasted forever. Still no sign of my grandparents. I called their house again. Please don’t answer. Please don’t answer.

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Surviving Wildfires, Part 1 of 4

pic courtesy Christian BresslerChristian lives in Amarillo, TX. She's also one of my wife’s best friends. For the past couple weeks, the area’s been just crushed by wildfires. Last week, she and her husband were forced to evacuate their home with flames devouring their neighborhood. Their story will be shared here in four installments over the next four days. It's a lens through which to view a bigger tragedy ... and through which to find something unbelievable in such a time as this: Joy. 

Surviving Wildfires | Part 1 of 4
by Christian Bressler, as told to Brandon Sneed

It started last Sunday, during church. I and my husband, Brady, went to the 11:00 service and went to lunch at Brady’s parents’ after. Then his sister called. She was in town, she said, and she saw a lot of smoke, and it looked like it was heading our way. We ran outside. Smoke filled the sky.

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