Faith in the Midst of Flames - A Story About the Lahaina Wildfire

[Music] hello my name is Roberta I'm the one of family of five I'm Italian by ancestry but I have been raised in America for most of my life previously my family and I were secular Christians but baruk hasem Hashem gued us to the truth of Judaism through rabi y Robin and RAB YF misaki now as noids we continue to learn and follow AEM throughout our daily life my sister and I also volunteer bem in order to spread shame light to others this light is what has kept us going through this time of Darkness that we have face during the fire in L Mai and which you will not be telling you about the story of Roberta August 7 was the start of the entire series of event that my family and I were going to experience in the coming days however if you have told us that at the time we would have likely not believe you August 7 in fact was even a day of celebration for my family having be my sister birthday butm has enable my sister to have a calm and fun birthday without any problems we have given a foreshadowing of what was to come we had gone shopping for a few things when suddenly out of nowhere the store had a black out it had been very windy but had not suspected anything strange the power outage was soon resolved and we Journey back home where he soon forgot about the blackout and neglected to pray to Hashem about the unusual weather condition but we pray as usual the next day everything changed my two sister I woke up around 5:15 a.m. to complete darkness real peit black darkness immediately we knew the power gone out even discover we did when we had the H in the wind although the successfully managed to Spook us I GED the think much of it and prayed to a shame much more because of habit than because of fear after all typically this things always end very quickly and I figure would be all good in the morning to my despair the power out remain with the constant accompaniment of the strong winds have learned where from a hurricane far far away from Mai nevertheless I still retain the belief that we only be a matter of ours until the power outage was fixed and hurrian that far away would not be an issue I continued to pray Le Torah all I usually would on an ordinary day and my family too at around 4: or 5 in the afternoon the after the house despite being fairly lit up by sunlight began to darken we crossed into the living room only to find the sky clouded with a black smoke and a small fire beginning to set the plants outside our home L this was when we began to realize some of the gravity of our situation and began to really back to a shame for this situation my family came together I began to pray for safety Learn to Run much more fently later in the evening something happened there was a knock on the door and my father rushed to open it but despite having open it quickly he found no one there to this day we never found out who it was perhaps it was a Fara who had run as fast as the wind who heard no noise from that seems very unlikely or perhaps it was Elijah the prophet who hasem sent in order to save us all we know is that the not save our lives if we have never heard it we would never have left our apartment I would have suffocated this especially since there were no s clear warning to the gate outside we found an enormous fire from the apartment beside us ferocious steam hit and the smoke with Stang the nostril and throat up until then we not seen the extent of the fire has there been no ability to check the news as well no alert see no call for our area we grabbed a few our things dash out our apartment to our car find the only further destruction near our building and we sped over the entrance we seem to be in hell with fire furiously lashing out at us a smoke the CL throat only the rment of the familiar places from our past in front of them Li across the exit was a fallen power power line we were trapped we could not risk driving over the power line I found our only means of Escape close to us we RIS back to the parking lot searching for any hope where we out it was there that Hashem blessed us with another one of the countless Miracles we received several far Fighters we we had not seen there in the parking lot when we had left the house H up to us escort us out of our compound from there we run through the mix shift hole in the fence down through the old Canal we grip the mask around our faces carefully scaled the side of the canel to get the safe ground the wall was incred incredibly Steep and my younger sister ey nearly fell but thank aame we only sustain a few scratches and manag to make it up to where a pickup Tru awaited us we have been rendered homeless in a matter of hours test oura would our business still be standing even with so much around being in Flames I Fai in hasem hope my building would be there but I also prepare myself for the situation where it would be B down and knew that whatever hasem did was best my youngest sister on the other hand only 14 years old had no doubt she continued to tell us that she knew the building would be there and should we should not lose hope until we are able to see our home we pray learn hope that Hashem would bless us with this miracle finally after what seemed like an eternity we return to Alina without a car we had to walk approximately treat miles in order to return sleeping he poly during our journey we truly could not have done it without the Str sh bless us with finally as we near the home we saw our building in the distance it was truly moment the shock with my family we cried out in pure relief as soon entered the compound itself there we found the building around the entrance of the compound as well as the be only 130 ft away from a horn had be rendered piles of hases and the breeze thank a shame that the fire never reach our building despite the fact the far father said that everything in the area will burn it was even part of an outodoor garage car cover that if the heat our building window would have kep on fire like the building nearby unbelievably despite the high wind it only hit the wall the push it back and how R was completely safe no one would have believed the horror of orella but what we must than a sham for most of all is not the building our lives but for Rabbi Yak zilber inspiring book to REM remain Jo which I managed to grab quickly before evacuating I read throughout the crisis and RAB R be a sh lecture before the fire we were watching this amazing lecture and rabi Yaki incredible series on this was lecture that help give my family the moon and confidence that enable us to survive have hope during the disaster we understood that AEM control everything everything was the best what kept me going was what RAB re said about Jacob the prophet after learning Torah for 14 years St without sleeping you would think he deserve a lot from Hashem as matter of fact Jacob himself didn't think that he only pray to Hashem for food and water reflecting on it today I know that I didn't deserve the building of my life just like I deserve the bre or the food he yet Hashem give us those things every day of Our Lives if we don't give anything to Hashem but it only gives us blessing and gift so I wish to serve Hashem in one of the best ways I can k during the disaster I pray to him that Mercy on us protect us our building I pray to him I continue to pray to him now that we can take our story use it for great purpose to tell others about this incredible story sanctify in his name as we know now Hashem gave us all this and more we know that Hashem knows what is best for us if something happen we must remember everything is for the best this mean that the best possible circumstances we can be in right now since we don't know our future we can trust only a shame not ourself and not other people by reflecting back on what happened so far we see that he showing us that he's always there with us every single second of the time is there in the details in that few Second Knock in that garage cover and so much more AEM has always sustain us and kept us safe as perform Miracles we never imagine many times I find that people including myself tend to look at things with complete pessimism we tend to feel discourage alone hopeless he is there to guide us out of the tunnel in the road into the light outside amazingly aam Li me when I was rushing to leave my party with my family I may have forgot to bring my medicine and my credit cards but I took with me the Torah the CD and cards for RAB I can tell you that just keeping follow the Torah and doing everyone will see unbelievable miracles in life like we saw thank you [Music] for amen