Watchman's Cry Struck with Fire!
Nathan Leal - December 7, 2011

Update - December 8, 2011 – Read

Our Building burning in the night.

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Why do bad things happen? Many reasons, but when they do, it is then that we have the opportunity to trust God, no matter what!

Tonite, it is late, 2 AM....or very early! The firemen just left my property. They have been here almost 6 hours battling a fire.

Fire! Fire! Fire!

In my life. I have wondered what it feels like when a family has a fire at their home. Now it is my turn to know!

Last night right after we had dinner, my eleven year old son said, "It's raining outside."

I was in my office and I asked, "How do you know?"

He said, "I can hear it outside."

I found this strange because it is supposed to be dry for 5 days. So my older teenage son looked out the window and saw a weird glow. He went to investigate.

The next thing I know, He is screaming "FIRE!"

Within seconds, my wife Donna is screaming, "Its on fire!"

I got up quickly and went outside to look, to my shock, our entire garage / outbuilding was engulfed in flames.

This is what I saw:




This is a large building almost fifty feet wide. It is burning very hot. The sound of the "crackling" is what my son heard.

Our family Mini-van was parked on the left side and was engulfed in flames. The second unit stall was our chicken house for
forty egg laying hens. One managed to escape. The others...(God rest their souls)..!

The next part of the building had 6 tons of hay stored for our sheep. It burned hot. The far right portion of the building was our sheep house that I just finished building two weeks ago.

At this moment, I do not know if I am numb (in shock) or too tired to feel, but I do find that I am having odd feelings.

I can feel the peace of God, in the midst of the other feelings.

I am thankful for that. Perhaps, it has not hit me yet. In the morning, we will have sunlight to really see the damage. At this point, I do know that there is a lot of damage, I wonder if I am afraid to add it up?

After the fire was put out, my five year old Hannah saw our car and cried. "Mama, where's my carseat?" Donna didn't answer. She just looked and covered her mouth with her hand, covering her tears.

The family van....toast!

My daughter asked me, "What are we going to do?"

I smiled back at her with effort and said, "It's going to be okay.."

I said this because I am the dad and I am supposed to be strong for my children....right?"

"But daddy, how can we go anywhere?" I told her not to worry.

And at this moment, I am reciting everything by faith, because what else do we have?

The fire is a mystery. The Chief told me he does not know how it started. I thought that they always knew? He said, " Not always!"

I asked, "Did it start in the chicken coop?"

He said, "He did not think so...he can't be sure!"

So after they left, we are asking the question, "How?" We don't know.

Our local fire dept. is all - volunteer. As they battled the blaze, I found myself thankful for the these brave warriors. They were willing to come out here to my place, in sub-freezing temperatures and help me.

"God," I whispered, "Bless them!"

My wife, Donna spent much of the time keeping them warm with hot tea and coffee. There were nine fire vehicles, two ambulances, several deputies. And the water pumper trucks.

They used five truck loads of water to put out our fire. There are no fire hydrants out here in the country. The chief told me that each load has 17,000 gallons of water. That means that they used 85,000 gallons of water to put out the fire.

Our van engulfed in flames

So what was the tally? I guess the question should be, what was spared? My family was spared and... one chicken!

Thank you God ... the family is safe!

Watchman's Cry operates out of our home office/ property.

Please remember us in your prayers!

Nathan Leal

December 7, 2011