In wildfire-destroyed home, burnt page is a song of hope

Charlie Gibson, 16, could see the piles of ashes from the books in her second-story bedroom of her burned home near Ashland.

But on her second trip to see whether anything was salvageable at the family’s homestead, she stepped out of her car onto a single piece of paper.

Picking it up, she saw it was a hymnal page, burned around the edges. Two hymns could still be made out in their entirety: “Come Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy” and “Come Let Us Reason.”

On Sunday, Gibson helped lead her church in singing those same hymns.

“It’s kind of amazing that the one piece of paper that we could still figure out and see what’s there is the hymnal page,” Gibson said. “It just goes to show God is still with us even through all this terrible, awful stuff. … We’re in his hands, and we’ve just got to trust in him.”

Several families at First Christian Church were directly affected by the fires that burned 60 percent of Clark County last week. Families who didn’t lose any property spent the week helping those who had.

Several said it was their faith that kept them going through the losses, fear and exhaustion of the week.

“That’s the cornerstone,” said Janae Wilson, Gibson’s mother. “That’s the foundation that is holding us up. There are times that it’s hard. It’s hard. That (faith) is the main thing that we revert back to. You have to, ’cause otherwise you’re just going to fall apart and not have anything to stand on.”

Wilson said her family lost their house, homestead and grassland. Most of their cattle took refuge in ponds, surviving the fires.

When the family evacuated their home on Monday, the first things they grabbed to take with them were their Bibles.

Until Saturday night, they stayed in their camper. Since then, a church elder helped put them in touch with someone who had an empty home temporarily available.

Wilson said she’s still shocked that her daughter found a single hymnal page blowing around outside their ruined home.

The verses to “Come Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy” – a hymn that dates back to 1759 – urge sinners, the thirsty and the weary to go to Jesus.

The chorus reads: “I will arise and go to Jesus, he will embrace me in his arms.”

“Our faith is just so strong, and that (hymnal page) can represent that,” Wilson said.

Some of Sunday morning’s service went much like a Sunday service during happier times: the taking of communion, a children’s sermon, announcements. Other moments bore reminders of the fire, when people cried softly or asked whether the Wilsons needed donated bedding after losing their home.

Dressed in boots and a denim dress, Grace Gardiner, 12, sang “What I Know” by Tricia Brock. Several of Grace’s family members had been affected by the fires, including her aunt and uncle, who lost their home, livestock and grassland.

“It’s been another day when it seems like faith eludes me, everything’s been so confusing,” Grace sang. “But what I know is you, my God are real, no matter how I feel, you’ve never let me go.”

Grace’s mother had heard her singing the song at home and thought the words were just right for the circumstances.

Many eyes grew damp as Grace sang, “You’re always good, your ways are higher than mine.”

The Rev. Nick Johnson, pastor of First Christian, estimated that about five families out of the church’s roughly 120 members had been directly affected by the fire.

Johnson preached from John 15, including the verse, “Greater love has none than this, that one person would lay down their life for a friend’s.”

He’s seen that love exemplified over the past week, Johnson said, encouraging the congregation to continue showing that love.

“We have heavy hearts, God, and tired bodies from the work we’ve been doing and the things we’ve been through this week, but I thank you for what is most important: Our friends and families are here and are safe,” Johnson prayed.

This story was originally published March 12, 2017 at 5:16 PM with the headline "In wildfire-destroyed home, burnt page is a song of hope."