It is hot here.

So hot. Like 105 and 106-degrees hot. My friend, Kaye, posted this report this morning:

YES! We did see a little bit of rain last night! It was wonderful! But we still need to pray for rain because it was [not] even close to being enough. Currently in Colorado there are 12 wildfires burning, temps are over 100º, and there is little or no humidity. In Estes Park Saturday 22 homes + 2 outbuildings burned. In the High Park fire near us, there have now been 248 homes confirmed destroyed and about 50 out buildings. the fire has grown to 83,205 acres and is down to only 45 % containment. I heard on the news that an estimated 13,000 people are displaced from their homes statewide. So let’s keep praying for rain! Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain!!!!!

Kaye was referencing, in part, our Heaven Fest Leadership Meeting last night (as well as all the prayer at churches across the state, I know), where we spent some time crying out to God for rain, for containment, for relief from the fires. Just across the hall from us at The Ranch in Loveland (in the 1st National Bank building), a press conference and report was happening for the displaced, the evacuees. There was heavy stuff happening.

One hour later, while on a flat-bed tour outside so the team could see where everything would be at Heaven Fest this year, a cloud cover came and there was some drop in the temp. Then thunder and lightening and sprinkling, then raining. And our weather patterns, usually always swooping down and away from the northeast – we actually saw heading west – toward the High Park fire. Some of our leadership rode home in torrents of rain. It was cool.

But the fire rages. Many have been added.

On Saturday our neice Lori and her daughters almost had to evacuate their Estes Park home where a cabin caught on fire less than a mile away. We were all on stand-by and it was dealt with. The next morning, a bear was in the ri neightbor’s yard, surely driven closer in by the ruckus.

Lori took this photo from her deck Saturday.

The heat is taking a toll. The grass is burning up. The dog can’t be out. Neighborhoods are losing power. There is a 100% ban on any fireworks in Colorado this year. As it should be.