(see pictures from the trip and other pictures from June including family pics) Pray for International Students Inc. There is a huge wildfire in Colorado Springs where I was a part of the ISI staff at a conference. At around 7 PM tonight, we were told that we had 15 minutes to evacuate the hotel. I am now safe at in Raton, New Mexico. We opted to load our car with most of our stuff and head on home. Now the fire is very close to the hotel (1/2 mile), so thank God we were evacuated.

About 300 people related to ISI were evacuated. Many were originally to be sent to an evacuation site, a local high school. The great blessing is that our ISI Home office staff came through in a HUGE way and were able to house all the staff that stayed in Colorado Springs after the evacuation in their homes until they can either get to the hotel or they could board their planes to go home.  We are so honored by how INCREDIBLY the home office staff came to the rescue. Praise the Lord for such a wonderful, loving team.

Needless to say, Our conference has come to an abrupt end.

Please pray for Colorado Springs, for our staff who live here, and for all the ISI friends who are in refugee status right now. Several of our home office staff homes are right in the evacuated area and several are within yards of the flames. Pray that the hotel will not be burned down as many, including UTA ISI Staff Director Ron Bunyard, left a lot of their luggage in their rooms. Pray for other Christian organizations in the area, especially the Navigators. Their Glen Eyrie facility’s iconic and historic Castle have fire in the canyon just above it and several structures on both their Glen Eyrie & Eagle Lake facilities are rumored to be ablaze. Fire crews have made those facilities fire bases. Some very special places like the Flying W ranch have already burned down. Pray for the people who lost homes. Pray for those who are displaced. Let God bring glory somehow through this tragic turn of events. Pray for rain and for the wind to move in a good direction. God is the God who controls nature.