“How do you like Australia?” a new acquaintance asked in late August.

“Yeah, it’s been good,” I replied with a bit of a grin. “We lost our house to a fire just two weeks ago.” My demeanor must have belied some of my attitude, because this fellow I’d just met couldn’t hold back a laugh. The shock of such a statement delivered with a smile must have been odd indeed. How could I say this in all seriousness? How could a fire, which destroyed most of our belongings and our home that we had been renting only a month, have any upside to it? We had only been living in Australia for 7 months. My wife, Megan, was 6 months pregnant; our daughter, Jolene, was 15 months old; our families were half of a world away; we had moved 5 times in little more than a year; and we had depleted our savings setting up a home. Yet, we could proclaim with the Psalmist, “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!” (Psalm 34:8).

Sunday morning, Aug. 13, we got the call while vacationing in Sydney. My mobile phone rang and my coworker, Phil, was on the other end.

“Mate, I’ve just talked to Steve Ormesher [our landlord], and he’s on the way to your house because it’s on fire.”

My first thought was, “What did we leave on?” And then I thought of Allen Blackwood, who was living with us for his semester study abroad at Deakin University in Geelong. He had been on holiday with his family the week before, but I didn’t know when he had planned to return to our place. I called his mobile phone, but there was no answer. His father, Ed, called me soon after. He told me Allen had returned to our place earlier in the week and that he (Ed) was on his way down to our house. Allen had been able to call him that morning from a neighbor’s house, since Ed’s number was the only one he could remember. Thankfully, Allen was able to get out of the house safely.

That morning Allen had brought a space heater into the living room to stay warm while reading his Bible. He got up to use the bathroom, and the next thing he heard was the fire alarm. He came into the living area to find the couch on fire. Unable to extinguish it with a wet towel, he ran to the neighbor’s house in search of a hose or fire extinguisher and to call the fire brigade. The neighbors didn’t have anything to help put out the fire, so Allen figured he’d try to grab what he could and get out. Going back into the house, Allen found the hallway black with smoke and the heat too intense to enter. Soon after, the fire brigade arrived and began to put out the blaze. Twenty minutes later the fire was out, but the living area, dining room, and kitchen were destroyed beyond recognition. The fire was so hot that it melted the cast aluminum on Meg’s mixer. The flat ceiling of the living room and the fact that these three rooms were closed off created an inferno that only heightened when the living room picture window blew out. The fire scorched the paint on our car that was parked in the carport next to the house.

Even as the fire was still raging, folks in the Geelong Reformed Presbyterian Church found out about the incident and began to help. Josh and Sarah McEwen stopped by on the way to church to check out the damage for us. Jono Blakson and his sister Jane arrived and provided Allen with support. Our landlords, Steve and Debbie Ormesher, exhibited a truly Christlike attitude by encouraging Allen and reminding him that only temporal things were lost. The home that was burning in front of them was their planned place of retirement and the place where they had raised their two children for a few years.

In Sydney, we decided it wouldn’t help to leave right away and it would be better for us to attend church. We were visiting friends who know Megan’s family in the States and whom we had met at Megan’s grandparents’ home during Christmas 2005. We attended their church grateful that we were with our friends and that we were able to worship and bring our heavy hearts before the Lord. During the corporate prayer time, our friends asked for prayer for our situation, which was very comforting. We were even given a spontaneous offering by these fellow believers who had not met us before that day. The trip home that evening was difficult, not knowing how much of our home was left. The trip home was probably the hardest time of the ordeal emotionally. Thankfully we were on this trip with friends from the Geelong RPC, Josh and Lucila Feldman. It was good to have support all along the way. On the way home, Lucila’s brother, Derek, called us to offer the home he and his wife, Katherine, had just purchased in Geelong. He told us we could live rent free until we got back on our feet. They “just happened” to have bought this house, planning to move down to Geelong from Sydney sometime in late 2007. They “just happened” to be looking for a Christian family who might rent it from them for that time. The closing on the house was just a week and a half after our house burned. It is amazing how God revealed His care for us in his timing of the events surrounding the fire.

When we arrived back in Geelong, Josh and Lucila let us sleep at their home and use it as a home base the next day as we tried to regroup. Nothing could have prepared us for the shock of seeing the house so ravaged by fire. We found remains of quite a few of our belongings. Despite the intensity of the flames and all of the water used to extinguish them, a few of our things survived without much damage. Most of our clothing and a few little items were saved due to Jane’s quick thinking. Jane, with the help of Jono, grabbed our clothing and the small items before the fire brigade boarded up the house. One encouragement was our wedding album, which was stained and the binding destroyed. The pictures were fully restored free of charge by a photography studio that Brian Sleeman, a member of Geelong RPC, works for. The list of help God provided goes on and on. Jono Blakston took a day off from his job and joined David Hart, Allen Blackwood, and myself scrubbing smoke damage from pieces of furniture. Our clothing was divided up among families and washed repeatedly to remove stains and the smell of smoke. There were donations of furniture, clothing, toys, linens, even a new mixer to replace Meg’s melted one! It wasn’t just people in the RP church either. Steve and Debbie made the need known to their church (Christian Reformed Church of Australia) and my coworker Phil to his as well. Amy Trevaskis, from church, spent an entire day calling businesses, telling them about our fire and asking if they would be willing to donate items.

We could not have made it through without the support from our fellow one half- American family, Josh, Sarah, and Eleni McEwen. They opened up their home for us to live in for the entire two weeks before we moved into the home we were offered. Just having someone there from “back home” was a big boost to us and especially to Megan. Josh made me lattes every evening with their superduper coffee machine. Many little things like that made the ordeal easier to bear.

On the Friday after the fire, we visited the home we were offered. We still marvel at how good God was to let us stay here for this time of recovery. The house is a nice size, has many plants, two decks, and a great yard. The house has a great layout for hospitality. Allen and Zachary Blackwood drove from Frankston with their van and Lucas Pardo from the McKinnon congregation drove with a large shipping van to help us move. The prayers and support from our home churches of Lafayette, Kokomo, and Southside RPCs were invaluable. Many of our friends, family, and fellow believers felt led to help by donating money to help us get back on our feet. We were overwhelmed. Because of the generous giving of the folks here and in the States, we were able to make an almost complete recovery of items that we lost. In many cases we were given better things than we had before!

We know that this fire happened for the glory of our Lord. We can already see many ways in which He has used it for that purpose. God gave us strength to face this and to continue to glorify and praise Him through it. That concept is strange to the world and has given many of our friends and family opportunities they might not otherwise have had to share the hope we have in Christ. Megan and I have been able to share with others by telling of the care God gave through our friends, family, and the church. It is an incredible story of God’s grace toward us, His children.

“I will bring the third part through the fire, refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are My people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God’ ” (Zech. 13:9).

Brandon and Megan Fisher and their two daughters, Jolene and Adele, are members of the Geelong RPC in Australia.