Minister Rodney Davis has raised doubts about the congregations that most Sundays are virtual.
How do you start a day when there may be a crisis?
About 40 people in Pues nod as he answers his questions. Even if it is uncertain to them, it is certain to the Lord, and there is comfort in it.
And in these times, comfort is very necessary for members of the Christian Church in Pasadena. At least 10 families from the church, which has around 75 members, lost their homes at Eton Fire.
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Over the next few weeks, they looked back on their lives that had been defeated, remembering lost heirlooms, photographs of precious memories, and more. Those who know that you will arrive in life without anything and leave without anything can find strength in the body of Christ, the 64-year-old pastor said.
When the congregations shared what they had lost after their recent service, they suffocated tears and vowed to perseverance.
Last month, congregations have been distributing clothing, groceries and other items from church parking lots to the larger community, even when many people need their own help.
Despite all this, the congregations of the church on Lincoln Avenue feel that their faith is stronger, even if they cannot return home.
Kevin and Warner
Warner Anderson of Lincoln Avenue Church, Christian Church in Pasadena. Losing his home at Eton Fire, Anderson has been with the church since 1965 and is now volunteering to distribute food and supplies for other fire victims.
(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times)
Brothers Kevin and Warner Anderson asked about Eton Fire before going to bed on January 7th. They packed some things into the car, but fell asleep, convinced that fire was not an issue.
“It’s a miracle and I’m still alive,” Warner, 81, said, looking back at the night.
Around 3am they woke up to the loud knock at their door. Their neighbors said the Eton fire had arrived in western Altadena. Kevin Anderson, 65, remembers, remembered that thick smoke covered the neighborhood and the wind surged up the shingles on the roof into the air.
Aside from a wake-up call from neighbors, The Andersons were not ordered to evacuate, Warner said. Former computer contractors at the Jet Propulsion Institute are trying to avoid harp what happened if they kept sleeping.
“We would never have woken up,” he said.
Jane Callum sings in the Sunday congregation at the Christian Church in Pasadena.
(Carlin Stiehl/for the The Times)
The Andersons home in the last half century was one of more than 4,800 detached homes that were destroyed in the Eton Fire in a 44-day run. All photos of ur, with his late relatives, gems, precious heirlooms, Warner’s collection of UCLA sweaters and ruins of his two late brothers, are gone.
Warner said he’s humbled to start again from Square 1. He and his brothers rely not only on the kindness of the church community, but also on the family, friends and strangers who provided clothing, household items, and places to stay. The brothers moved multiple times after the fire and are now settled in Monrovia with former Warner colleagues. Anderson tries to suppress his sense of normalcy by attending his second home, church.
“We’re not going to prevent our home from coming here,” Kevin Anderson said from his front paw in a recent Bible study.
A gardener in trade, he wants to volunteer at the church he has been in since childhood.
“Even if I lose everything, it’s not destroying me,” he said. “I still believe in God and he intends to bring us to the better.”
Keith and Jennifer
Rochelle Taylor Hudson, right helps Leon Walker browse clothing for fire victims at the Christian Church in Pasadena. Walker, a resident of Altadena, lost his home in Etonfire and now lives by truck.
(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times)
Keith and Jennifer Gibbs are hoping to arrive with their third grandson while they are trying to rebuild their lives.
They raised their son in a four-bedroom West Altadena home and hosted all the big family gatherings, including birthdays, Christmas and this past big ve day in December.
But the ashes of the rain on fire night and the burning embers are the final image of their home.
“We may have been… added to those who died in these fires,” Keith Gibbs said.
In the church, he stood before the congregation and thanked God for saving God and his wife. The 17-year-old died from the fire sparked memories from his time in the army that continued to plague him.
Gibbs said he was at Camp Fuji in 1979 when a fuel leak started igniting, and a wind-driven flame roamed the camp, and the Marines went to sleep and burned 13 that killed 13 people.
Now he takes a long walk around his new Tarzana neighborhood, clearing his mind when he is overwhelmed, and suddenly he gets lost. He finds a way to use his phone to return to Jennifer.
Kevin Anderson lifts the table onto the truck while setting up distributions for fire victims at the Church of Christ on Lincoln Avenue.
(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times)
“She was definitely my rock,” he said.
However, Jennifer said she also had moments of her sadness. Earlier this month, she said she reached out emotionally to Hera, which wasn’t there, reminded her of Altadena’s home.
However, the couple is about to continue to grow stronger for their grandchildren, Knox, 3, and Maria, 2, 2.
“It was like their safe haven,” Jennifer said.
She doesn’t need to explain to the toddler that their home is gone. But caring for them means that she doesn’t have to focus all her energy on the loss. She can attend for her family and that’s enough.
The kids call and say they went to their home in Altadena. Keith wants to show them what happened, but Jennifer is against the idea.
“I don’t want them to see devastation,” she said. “That’s the question they have and they wonder what happened.”
Jennifer feels he has time to heal since the fire, but Keith says he is still on alert and regularly draws strength from inspirational quotes for the comfort he pulls up on the phone.
“Heavenly Father, I may not understand how everything works, but I trust you,” he said. “Things may seem dark and dark right now, but I believe my dawn is upon us. In the name of Jesus. Amen.”
On Thursday, grandparents welcomed their grandson Kodi, who was born at 8 pounds, 4 ounces.
“Give it all to God.”
It can be difficult to understand disasters.
The Church of Christ in Altadena is a humble storefront on Fair Oaks Avenue, a sister church to the Pasadena Place of Worship, and was destroyed by Etonfire.
Church member Linda da Aguilar had left town when the church burned, but she still received an alert over the phone and still evacuated a house in the hills of Altadena. She called her granddaughter. She was staying at D’Aguilar’s house with her baby and told her to leave.
“She hadn’t heard the alert so she said, ‘You need to evacuate, you need to take the baby and run as quickly as possible,” said D’Aguilar, 73. “By the time she came together and tried to pack some things, there was a fire there in our backyard.”
The two escaped, but most of the house on the streets of D’Aguilar were destroyed. Still, the smoke damage is currently living in hotels.
She has no explanation as to why her home was spared when her church was not. D’Aguilar thinks the large rocks and cement surrounding a portion of her property may have helped her defeat the fire, but who knows?
“I just give it all to God,” she said. “He is the only person who will put my house on.”
Her Sunday is currently spent at the Christian Church in Pasadena, surrounded by friends who are pleased with her.
There is still a need
Church members leave after Sunday congregations at the Christian Church in Pasadena.
(Carlin Stiehl/for the The Times)
Traffic passing through the Pasadena Church’s parking lot has slowed in recent days, but the church is open three days a week.
The impulse from volunteers is to give to people in need as long as they can carry when they stop by, but that is not always possible. Many people in need live in hotels and rooms with limited space. Still, it helps a little.
One couple picked up diapers. The volunteers helped another man buy clothes for work.
“It means the world,” said one man who stopped by while he was running a box of goods, refused to give his name due to privacy concerns.
Dorothy Broadway, 74, was volunteering at church on a recent Sunday. Her son, James, also lost his home in the fire.
“The need is still there and it will be there for a long time,” she said.
James Broadway stands in the doorway of a room full of supplies for fire victims at the Christian Church in Pasadena. Broadway and his mother have been active in church for the rest of their lives, and even after losing their home, he felt forced to volunteer as another fire victim.
(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times)
Her son agreed.
Not only hundreds of houses are lost, but thousands, and people live their lives as if there were no major challenges for everyone in and around the church, said James Broadway, 55.
“There are a lot of people out there. I can say this, a lot of people out there feel like there’s no tomorrow, but they’re there,” he packed a box of water and helped volunteers organize the donated items. “He puts nothing in front of you, you can’t handle it.”
Broadway had to leave after that. Someone else at the center was in trouble.
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