{"id":2865,"date":"2019-02-12T20:00:25","date_gmt":"2019-02-12T20:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/salvationarmy.ca\/britishcolumbia\/prayers-answered-for-families-after-2017-forest-fires\/"},"modified":"2025-05-26T11:23:54","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T11:23:54","slug":"prayers-answered-for-families-after-2017-forest-fires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salvationarmy.ca\/britishcolumbia\/2019\/02\/12\/prayers-answered-for-families-after-2017-forest-fires\/","title":{"rendered":"Prayers Answered for Families After 2017 Forest Fires"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 2017, fires tore through our province, causing millions\nof dollars in damage and impacting thousands of lives. From Williams Lake to\nKelowna and parts in between, raging fires forced people to pack-up and leave\neverything behind to chance. Some came home to see their houses or business\nstill standing \u2026 hundreds came back to nothing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joan Scheffler was one of those who came back to nothing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just stood there and thought, well, my house is gone … what am I going to do now?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The fires burned over 1.2 million hectares of forest\nin the province that year. They destroyed Scheffler\u2019s house, located about an\nhour outside of Williams Lake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know what to think or do,\u201d said Scheffler, a widow, who lacked sufficient insurance to rebuild. So she prayed. \u201cI asked God what I should do.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

God answered her prayers. The Salvation Army – in partnership\nwith the Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) Canada – provided a grant of $100,000\nfrom the 2017 Wildfire Relief Fund to rebuild her house. Three other families\nin the community also had their houses rebuilt, including Sandi Chilton, who\nwas in town running errands when the fire took everything she had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t believe someone was going to re-build our house,\u201d said Chilton. Her new home came with something extra special – wheelchair accessibility to accommodate her daughter, who requires full-time care as a result of being in a car accident in 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m just so grateful to those who\nhelped,\u201d she said. \u201cI have a lovely house. I\u2019m thankful for all who helped and\ndonated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All four families moved into their homes in October of\n2018 and it is all because of the generosity of our donors \u2026  donors like you, who gave selflessly to help\nthose in crisis.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story represents a small portion of the people\nwho were helped because of your generosity. Over the past year-and-a-half, we\nhave been working with all of the communities impacted to provide funds to\naddress the needs of those who suffered loss. And for this we cannot say it\nenough \u2013 thank you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a look at the impact your donations had on the province during 2017 wildfires view the 2017 Wildfire Report. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2017 BC Wildfire Report<\/a>Download<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2017, fires tore through our province, causing millions of dollars in damage and impacting thousands of lives. From Williams Lake to Kelowna and parts in between, raging fires forced people to pack-up and leave everything behind to chance. Some came home to see their houses or business still standing \u2026 hundreds came back to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2866,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[17,14,70],"tags":[],"location":[],"class_list":["post-2865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-about-us","category-featured","category-health-and-social-services"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPrayers Answered for Families After 2017 Forest Fires - British Columbia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/salvationarmy.ca\/britishcolumbia\/2019\/02\/12\/prayers-answered-for-families-after-2017-forest-fires\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prayers Answered for Families After 2017 Forest Fires - British Columbia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In 2017, fires tore through our province, causing millions of dollars in damage and impacting thousands of lives. 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