Wildfires & Wilderness Women

Julie Spagnolo Ochoa, Julie VanKekerix McClure and Sharon Keene LeMay

Five years after college, I took stock of my life and decided there was nothing to keep me from moving to the mountains where I'd always wanted to live.  Consequently, I packed my bags and moved to Colorado Springs.  There I lived and worked and eventually married my husband Tim, but not before I became a Wilderness Woman!

While I lived in the Springs, friendships sprouted between me and the women shown in the photo above...plus Karol who isn't in this picture, but more about Karol and her absence from this picture later. 

The five of us met at First Presbyterian Church of Colorado Springs.  Not only did we worship together at First Pres, but we also played together on a women's soccer team that, in 1984, took first place in the Colorado Springs Intramural Championship Tournament--I still have the coffee mug that proves this!--and we backpacked together on overnight trips into the mountains.  We called ourselves the Wilderness Women.

Although we have stayed in touch over the intervening years since our single days in the Springs, too many miles separated us. 

Julie Spagnolo attended a Spanish language immersion program in Costa Rica in preparation for missionary service; then, married Efrain Ochoa and moved to Juarez, Mexico as well as other border towns before settling in Denver a few years ago. 

Sharon continued to work at the headquarters of Compassion International in Colorado Springs after she married Brian LeMay.  Now she travels to countries served by this ministry where she trains nationals to carry out Compassion's mission to free children from poverty. 

Karol was on staff with The Navigators, an interdenominational ministry that equips college students for a life of faith in Christ, before she married Ken Christie, another Nav staff member.  Together Ken & Karol ministered to college students in Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Carolina and Kansas before moving to Belgrade, Serbia and Bratislava, Slovakia to serve Eastern Europeans.  Currently, their assignment is at Glen Eyrie, The Navigators headquarters in the Springs, where Ken serves as the NavMissions Director of Operations. 

After Julie Van KeKerix married Army officer Rick McClure, they traveled to Rick's next Army assignment in Southern France where they lived for five years before returning to the States and settling in Corbin, KY.

Early this year the five of us decided that if we were ever going to stage a Wilderness Women reunion, we needed to do it this June before ministry opportunities scattered our members overseas once again.  And so we did! 

Castle Rock, Colorado silhouetted against the smoke-filled clouds
from the Waldo Canyon wildfire.

We laid our plans to meet for a 3-day reunion from June 26-28 in Castle Rock, Colorado.  Little did we suspect that while we were reminiscing and reuniting, a wildfire would threaten to reduce one of our homes to rubble!

Yet, that is exactly what occurred!  Karol and her family were evacuated from their Mountain Shadows neighborhood home in the northwest foothills of Colorado Springs last Saturday around 4:00 p.m.  Grabbing a few necessities, they made arrangements to stay temporarily with friends until the Waldo Canyon fire could be brought under control. 

With urging from Ken and their two teenaged children, Karol decided to come to our Wilderness Women reunion as planned, driving up to the home where we were staying in Castle Rock Tuesday morning. 

Unfortunately, gusty winds that day turned the Waldo Canyon fire into a harrowing inferno that spilled over the ridges and raced down the foothills towards Karol's neighborhood that night.

As we watched the smoke of the Waldo Canyon fire from the back patio of the home where we were staying, we prayed for Karol's family, for the Navigators' headquarters Glen Eyrie, and for all those evacuated from their homes.

Photo courtesy of Chris Jeub's blog, "Jeub Family."

When Karol reached Ken by phone that evening, authorities had closed Interstate 25 to make way for residents fleeing the fire.  Rather than tacking her way to her family along dark back roads to the east of the Interstate, Karol decided to spend the night with us and evaluate the situation in the morning.  She did not sleep well that night, but she was more rested than Ken who called her the next morning.  He reported that he had not slept at all.  Who could sleep while worrying that everything one had might be in ashes come the dawn?

Wednesday morning we quickly posed for a group picture, for God only knows when we Wilderness Women might meet again!  Then, the five of us prayed together once more before hugging Karol as she left us to rejoin her family.

Karol Christie sits on the top step next to me.
Julie Ochoa, Julie McClure and Sharon LeMay

Wanting to do something to help, the four of us who remained scanned the web site listing volunteer relief opportunities set up by the City of Colorado Springs.

There we learned that the Douglas County fairgrounds located on the south side of Castle Rock had opened its animal barns as a temporary shelter where residents evacuated from the fire's vicinity could leave their horses, dogs, chickens, and cats. 

We could help prepare horse stalls, assemble animal crates, fill water troughs, and feed these animals and so we volunteered to help.

That evening, knowng that it was our final night together, the Wilderness Women, without Karol, took our obligatory hike just as we had planned to do for months. 

Setting off on the perimeter trail around Castle Rock, the landmark that lends its name to the community we'd chosen for this reunion, we hiked almost up to the top of this well-known promontory, but the dignity of our mature age prevented us from scrambling up the crevices to reach the top's flat mesa.

Still, as we overlooked the busy traffic of Interstate-25 from our lofty perch, we reflected upon how quickly life can spin out of our control and how much we need to rely upon the faithfulness of God to direct our lives.

Returning home, we found an update emailed by Ken to all their family members and friends. In that email, Ken wrote about the limbo of his family was experiencing, not knowing whether their home had escaped the fire or why God had allowed it to ruin so many lives. "Where is God in all of this?," Ken wondered, yet he kept returning to the promises of God found in the Bible, i.e. God is faithful, God is sovereignly in control, God will provide for His people.  Ken said that his family was finding comfort in 2 Corinthians 9:8, "And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work."

Thursday morning gave us one last opportunity to pray for Karol and one another before we said our goodbyes.  Knowing that we had homes to return to only made our prayers for Ken and Karol more poignant.

Safely home again, I pulled up Karol's Facebook page on Friday.  There I was touched by her posting: "We have much to be grateful for tonight as we learned today that our house is not destroyed. I find myself wanting to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. There are at least 346 homes with people who are experiencing much weeping at this time. May our family be ones to reach out to them as Jesus would do."

Now, I, too, am praising God for His protection of my friends, the Christies, and praying for His provision for all those families who lost their homes in this wildfire.

For more information about how to help those left homeless by the Waldo Canyon and other wildfires, visit the Samaritan's Purse site or The Navigators site.