Even before its flames were extinguished, Bastrop County residents were determined they would not be victims of the largest wildfire in Texas history. They were survivors, and survivors push forward no matter how trying the circumstances.

Marla Bearden

People like Ruth Rodgers began distributing donated items within days of the fire’s start. Primera Baptist Church in Bastrop almost instantly opened its doors, began serving meals, handing out supplies and housing people in its sanctuary.

Sept. 4  marks the anniversary of the fire, and the scar it left on the county is clear. The fire destroyed 1,691 homes and 38 businesses and scorched more than 34,000 acres. About 276 of the homes destroyed had no insurance. Fifty-two percent of all homes destroyed were underinsured. More than 700 of these homes are considered low income.

Yet those sobering statistics tell only part of the story. In many ways, the fire cleared the way to more clearly see residents’ spirit of cooperation, determination and trust in God to provide.

Ruth now runs the large Bastrop County Fire Relief Center off Childers Street in Bastrop. Volunteers continue blessing survivors with donations such as furniture, appliances, dog food and clothes. Ruth, a fire survivor herself, has had many trials in her own life over the past year, but her passion for helping, especially those who don’t fit the traditional mold of government assistance, has helped pull her through.

Ruth and Primera’s Pastor Harold Welch have teamed up to minister to some of those who have had no assistance from other areas. One lady lost her home and has no insurance. Her property is large but covered in burned trees. Another family is living in a storage building and an old travel trailer that was donated to them. Pastor Welch and Ruth are working to help this family.

Pastor Gordon Friday of Timberline Baptist Church in Paige, who lost his retirement home, office and workshop, has continued to minister with a saw mill ministry made possible by the help of Texas Baptist Disaster Recovery and Texas Baptist Men. He also is working to help a single lady with small children rebuild her home.  

Pastor J.R. Hopson of Ridgeway Baptist Church in Paige has partnered with Charles Caroll of First Baptist Church in Comanche to build three homes for fire survivors who would not have been helped if it had not been for this wonderful group of folks.

Then there are J.R. and Gloria Matthews, who are faithful Texas Baptist volunteers who have been managing the Faith Village Volunteer Center – an ecumenical effort supported by Texas Baptists at First Baptist Church in Smithville – since May. The couple faithfully organizes up to 40 volunteers a week. Gloria provides wonderful meals for the volunteers, while J.R. visits with each homeowner receiving help from volunteers. He listens. He offers a word from the Lord. And a prayer. They truly are the presence of Christ in the midst of trying times.

The stories go on and on. Families are waiting on funds and volunteer builders, but they are keeping hope in their hearts. Over and over again I hear, “I am a better person than I was before the fire.” This is truly a testament as to how God can turn something bad into something good.  

The one-year anniversary offers a time to realize all the wonderful work that that has been done and a time to look to the future. God has been faithful.

Marla Bearden serves as Texas Baptists’ disaster recovery specialist and is a member of the Bastrop County Long Term Recovery Team. The Baptist convention has provided assistance to Bastrop County Long Term Recovery Team, churches and survivors of last year’s fire. It also has directed numerous volunteer groups to serve in the area and continues to do so. For more information about volunteer opportunities in Bastrop, visit www.texasbaptists.org/disaster.

I was blessed with the opportunity to serve in South Asia two months this summer. My team was a part of a project in which we would go out into the villages and survey the condition of government water pumps. The idea behind this project is to create opportunities for local village churches to go into unreached villages and fix these pumps and share the gospel.

There are 45,000 villages in the state where I served, and there are hopes to see a church planted in every one of them. In the past three years, 198 churches have been planted in the area.

In one of the villages we were able to visit a house church. After sharing in a home with about 30 people, a man came up to us and told us how great the gospel is and asked us to share with the rest of the village. People in South Asia are hungry for truth and the gospel. Just as Jesus said in Matthew, the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Please pray that God would prepare more nationals to be trained as church planters and pastors so that many more may come to know Christ.

Jill, a student at the University of Texas at Austin, served with Go Now Missions in South Asia. Her last name is withheld for security reasons.

I no longer see the same familiar faces I saw for 10 days. There is absolutely no trace that they were even in the room. They only exist in my memory now, and that's hard to deal with. I began to build a relationship with my roommates, and before I knew it, they were gone. This feels so surreal. Why was I placed here to love on people and then they are removed from me?

I know I'm overreacting, but I came here to love on the Asians, and it feels as if they came to love on me. It's hard coming to an area with a mindset and goal and be completely shifted around. It hurts to know that they're gone. When each was leaving, I could not say "goodbye" but "see you later." I know the chances of that happening may be slim to none, but it gives me hope that I will see them again in the future.
 
I have hope that I will visit some of them if and when to Asia. That last words I said to my friend Filla was that the next time I visit her will be when she's getting married to her boyfriend. Tears raced down her cheeks as we hugged and had to part ways. I know that she was proud of me for opening my heart and loving her people. She has such a beautiful heart and spirit, and I hope she continues pursuing her dream because she has the potential to do anything she wants.

I don't know what to feel. I knew that this day was coming, but I didn't plan to have emotional attachment to the people here. I thought that it was going to be just me pouring love and not receiving it. But at the end, I was flooded by their love.

All I can do is sit and wait. Wait to see what the future holds for me. I strongly want to come back. My heart belongs here, nowhere else. If my life is planned out right, I can see my friends next year. I can only hope. Hope for the best.

Kevin, a student at Texas A&M University in Kingsville, has been serving with Go Now Missions in East Asia. His last name is withheld for security reasons.

Sometimes, I didn’t know what God was trying to teach us, and I couldn’t remember why I even had come to Philadelphia. But as he usually does, God revealed to me through his word and his children the reason I was needed in Philly. 

So, there I was, in the last week, thanking God for filling my life and spirit with a new hope. Hebrews 10:23 says, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful.” I love that last part, because I have my hope in a King and a Lord who is always faithful to his promise. 

This summer in Philly has been incredible. I confronted new difficulties, and God pulled me through with a new tool in my belt for encouraging others for Christ. Philly seems like a dark place—the murders, pollution, lack of respect—all things that turn people away. But as believers, we are called to go out and spread the word, and that doesn’t exclude the “dark” places. The truth is, any place that doesn’t know Jesus, poor or rich, is dark. 

So, I will be back in Philly. I don’t know how or when, but this summer God has shown me a love for the city like I never expected. I fully intend to bring back laborers to serve the Holy One in Philadelphia.

Angela Westmoreland, a student at Texas State University, served in Philadelphia with Go Now  Missions.

On one afternoon, my partner, Eunice, and I split up so we could visit more people in our limited time.

I ended up with three other ladies from the church in Puebla. Even though I was by far the youngest one, I ended  up doing most of the talking when we made our visits. They just introduced me as the missionary and let me do the rest.

Once again, I could feel God's peace and Holy Spirit speaking through me. One of my favorite visits was when we met Vivian and Janet, two shy teenage girls. At first they wouldn't say much. But after I explained to them Philippians 4:6-7, Vivian started crying. I could tell she wanted to share what was on her heart, but she said she didn't know where to start. I asked her if maybe there were too many ears and eyes in the room, and she agreed. The ladies with me quickly understood and left the room along with Vivian's mom.

Vivian then proceeded to open her heart. She was hurting a great deal. She was only 19 and had been married a few years ago for about 18 months. Her ex-husband had cheated on her. But even though he was still with another young woman, he threatening Vivian if she dared marry anyone else. She was afraid of him and afraid to make another wrong decision in the future. That's when I realized that the example and verse I had used had touched her heart and reminded her of this problem.

Phillipians 4:6-7 talks about how the peace of God will guard our hearts. I had explained to her how it's important to guard our hearts because sometimes our hearts can deceive us and guide our lives.

After she told me what she was going through, I used the same verse to tell her she doesn't have to fear or worry. We can lay our worries, anxieties in prayer, petition and with thanksgiving to God to receive the peace of God. It’s a peace that we can't explain nor understand. We feel  it even when we are going through the hardest days and times in our lives. Giving thanks is key—to remember all our blessings.

Vivian and Janet had made a decision to follow Jesus years ago but didn't have a serious relationship with him. I was able to explain how amazing and important is to have a relationship with Christ. He is the only one that can help them, guard them and never fail them.

I was able to pray for them and point them to specific books in the Bible for them to read on their own.

It amazes me how God already knew what verse they needed to hear. Another thing that I learned was that it doesn't matter how young I am, I can still be an example and speak up, even when there are older adults there.

Cynthia Peralta, a student at the University of Texas at Austin, served in Mexico with Go Now Missions.

My point is I am living comfortably. But that's not exactly what I expected—or wanted, really—when I signed up for this trip. What I wanted was for my comfort to be stripped away so that I really had nothing to rely on but the Father.

I know it sounds weird, but the reason that I wanted this is because I am so ADD, and in the midst of comfort, I find myself distracted by anything and everything. When I am uncomfortable, I look for some sort of escape, and a lot of times it's just easy and wonderful to escape into the word of God.

But I know that I was put here for a reason and that the Father is growing me by having me here. I know that God wants me to be connected to him wherever I am, and that includes comfortable places. So, I have learned to see it as an opportunity to build good habits for when I come back.

Jon, a student at the University of Texas at El Paso, is serving in East Asia with Go Now Missions. His last name is withheld for security reasons.

Something was wrong with me physically most of the time abroad, but it was worthwhile. The first week I was fighting jet lag. Then, the heat gave me a heat rash on my back. Later, a virus went around that decided to fall on me. As a result, I had a sore throat, fever and a headache for 24 hours before the antibiotics kicked in.

Those hours were the darkest I have ever experienced abroad. Alone in my room while everyone continued with camp activities, the room felt so quiet and lonely. I had thoughts of wanting to go back home and just wanting to see a familiar face. Tears run down my face, as I couldn’t fall asleep due to the headache and fever. All I could do was cry out to God to save me. Finally in the afternoon, I fell asleep.

I woke up to my roommates coming back. Never had I been so happy to see them. Somehow I had joy to greet them and ask them about their day. They asked how I was and hung out with me for a while.

One of them especially gave me her undivided attention. I decided to ask her about her belief in a god. She said she didn’t because her country did not. However, she did agree that religion beliefs should be personal.

I had no idea how to continue, so I quietly prayed for help as I continued. I told how God was the only one I had when I traveled abroad. “On sick days like this,” I said, “God is the only constant, my only hope of life.”

As I continued, she shared with me what gave her hope and energy to keep going. However, after listening to my story of my sickness and hope, she announced, “I want to know God, too.”

Dumbfounded, I could not believe my ears. I stopped and just thanked God.

God had totally done it. He himself had brought the conversation to that conclusion. That whole day of tears suddenly was purposeful, and my heart was full of joy. I thanked God for my suffering and tears. He had not only rescued me, but also rescued my friend. She decided to learn more about God and read the Bible.

Gabriela, a student at the University of Texas at Austin, served with Go Now Missions in East Asia. Her last name is withheld for security reasons.

We were nervous as the day started out. Rain had been pouring all morning long, and the block party was to begin at 2 p.m. When we arrived at the church at 11 a.m., we were soaked from head to toe. 

Greeting us at the door was a sister from the church. She was pulling coolers out of the closet and shuffling sodas back and forth through the church. I was amazed to see she was still setting up the block party with rain showering on her head. 

As we began to talk with her, she kept looking up at the sky saying: “Come on Lord, let the sun come out. We’ve got time.”  It soon became the prayer we were all voicing.  It seemed the faith of this one woman was infectious, and before you knew it, everyone was outside in the rain setting up tents, moving tables and chairs. 

Around 1:30 the rain completely ceased. Praise the Lord, we rejoiced. Throwing paper towels from one person to another, we were determined to dry every last drop of water from the site. We pushed mud and water and trash down the street with brooms, pulled all the food from the kitchen to set it up.  By 2 p.m., as the community started to roll in, everything was in place.  It ended up being the largest block party we had worked all summer, and it was an even larger sign of faith and prayer being able to move mountains.

Angela Westmoreland, a student at Texas State  University, served in Philadelphia with Go Now  Missions.

In one of the last days of the second camp, we had time after dinner to share about our dreams with our small group of campers. As coach assistant, I had the opportunity to assist the local coaches who led our campers through the activities and discussions.

In a room without electricity, each of our eight campers felt safe to share their dreams. One of the girls sitting to my right particularly caught my attention as I listened to one of my coaches translate. As she listened to the other kids, she crumbled and tore a piece of paper into pieces. I could see she was anxious about something, so I rubbed her back.

When the first kid finished talking, she volunteered to speak next. Before she began, however, she started sobbing. She said she wanted to tell us something she had wanted to share but was doubtful. From my coach, who spoke little English, I learned that her family life was broken. After she was done, all our campers took turns encouraging her and hugging her.

Our kids had never been to camp before. Some of them were farm kids who lacked strong family bonds, friends and love. They were from low-income homes and wore the same clothes every day. Our camp lectures usually entitled statements such as “You are Lovable” in the big screen.

Listening to their dreams was a humbling experience. As the day grew darker, our room became more intimate, and more kids shared. One wanted to help beggars, another one wanted to find a house for her parents along the seashore for their retirement, and another one wanted to become a professional basketball player.

When it was my turn, I shared my heart with the help of a translator. I talked about how God had given me hope and love in my darkest nights. At the end of my story, I told them God loved them, too, and he wanted to be a part of our lives, be with us in our darkest and loneliest moments. He can hear our prayers. Just like he saved me, he could save them, too.

I thank God for sending me to East Asia to share the hope and love he gives to anyone who wants to receive it.

Gabriela, a student at the University of Texas at Austin, served in East Asia with Go Now Missions. Her last name is withheld for security reasons.

I feel I grew so much in such a short time. I learned to rely on the Lord, knowing that I could not heal or really help these girls in the ways they truly need. This was certainly frustrating at times, but also humbling. I learned to keep coming back to my knees in order to fight for these girls and continually ask for patience and guidance in my interactions and conversations with them. I have confidence that even though they experienced bad circumstances and backgrounds, the Lord is faithful and loving.

I believe that—even when it seems radical, even when my girls can't believe it for themselves. I believe it because I know it in my heart to be true. I am confident God has a plan for each and every one of these beautiful children.

I was blessed with the opportunity to share my testimony with some of the girls on campus.
On one occasion, I presented my testimony to an entire cottage during the week we went to Glorieta, which was pretty awesome. I do not know how receptive they all were, but regardless, I am praying the Lord uses it to speak truth to these young ladies.

This summer I constantly was reminded of God's grace and patience with us. He is patient with these kids when it seems impossible—and trust me, that is not a small thing. He is patient with us, even though time and time again we belittle and ignore him. He is patient when we choose creation and fleshly desires over him. I may not understand it, but I am truly grateful for it.

Claire Pettibon, a student at the University of Texas, served with Go Now Missions at Texas Baptist Children’s Home, part of Children at Heart Ministries.

During our first week with Elevation Church, in our orientation with Pastor Angus McKinley, he asked my partner, Kali, and me what was something we would like to see and experience while serving with Elevation. After giving his question some thought, I answered, "I would really like to see a life changed and a person come to Christ". “That's an incredible thing to look forward to. You should pray about it and see God move," he said. And so I did. And God answered my prayers.

During the Kids Sports Camp, I was put in charge of leading the arts and crafts track that week. One day, I was drawn to a little boy named Josh. We talked for over an hour. After our conversation, I was left with a heavy heart because God showed me this child did not have a relationship with Christ. That afternoon I was just very, very burdened by this. So, I went to a lake and sat underneath a tree gazing at the clouds. I prayed and prayed for this child and for God's work during the rest of the week at camp. I prayed that if God was tugging in Josh's heart, I wanted to see him respond and come to know Christ as his Lord and Savior.

Two days passed. On Thursday afternoon during story time, Josh sat by me. After the devotional, Pastor Angus offered a time of response and invitation. I went ahead and silently began praying for the children in the camp and their families. I prayed that if anyone there was feeling God knocking in their hearts, for them to say yes and not turn away. I peeked and saw Josh raising his hand.

After the devotional, I had to lead crafts and Josh was right there. Kali stepped up and took him aside. I was so excited when I saw Kali took the initiative to talk to him. After he returned, Kali told me how God guided her as she lead Josh to faith in Christ. I was so overjoyed and even more when I saw him during Sunday morning service with his entire family. Josh seemed like a different person. He was smiling and there was a sense of peace in his eyes. I could see how Christ is shining through him in the way Josh smiled at all of us.

That was the moment when I realized how God answered my prayers this summer. God gave me the great gift and blessing seeing someone accept Christ. He allowed me to see a life changed.
 
Gabby Azua, a student at Tarleton State University, served in  Fort Collins/Loveland, Colorado, with Go Now Missions.

One more time, we clearly saw the hand of God. We had learned earlier in our trip not to compare what we did in Mexico to the work we did in an earlier student missions assignment. We needed to trust that if God had called us and we obeyed whatever he wanted us to do, then it was important. And it would be just as fruitful because God was the one working through us.

Having learned that lesson, we were ready to take on whatever the churches had prepared for us to do. What we now needed the most was energy, strength and passion to finish it.  God definitely helped us to finish strong.

Those eight days, we helped with children’s camp, taught at a Vacation Bible School, presented an abbreviated women's conference, gave all churches a message or shared our testimony and visited many people.

Most of our job in Puebla involved encouraging the five churches. God made me realize that encouragement is so vital. Many of the churches didn't have many members attend, but that didn't matter. God wanted the few to be encouraged. I was surprise that after sharing my story, I could see the facial expressions of many people change. A great relief and happiness entered the room.

Cynthia Peralta, a student at the University of Texas at Austin, served with Go Now Missions in Mexico.