On Monday, the winds picked up, blowing all over the place.

On Tuesday morning, there was only a little wind and it was substantially cooler. At about 11:30am, a fire started in my townhouse complex.

The flames were 50 feet high - high enough for the fire fighters to see from the fire station. They were on their way even before the emergency calls went in.

Two units are gutted. A third has smoke and water damage. That third unit is directly across from us.

If it hadn't cooled off...

If the winds hadn't quit...

If the flames hadn't been that high...

The Carmel River watershed as seen from Pine Ridge 16 months after the Marble Cone Fire

The Monterey Peninsula gets almost all of its water from the Carmel River. The water is stored behind the Los Padres Dam in Cachagua and released to flow downstream into the Carmel Valley Aquifer. There it is pumped out of the ground by the California-American Water Co. and sold to the residents and businesses of the Monterey Peninsula.

When Los Padres Dam was built, in 1949, it held 3,300 acre-feet of water. 50 years later, in 1999, half of that capacity had already been lost to siltation. This very heavy rate of fill (an average of over 30 acre feet lost per year!) has badly compromised the dam’s ability to adequately supply the Peninsula with water.

It’s not the first time. San Clemente Dam, just upstream of the Carmel Valley Village, was built in 1921 with a capacity of about 2,000 acre-feet. Only 25 years later, its siltation problems were being cited as a reason why Los Padres Dam needed to be built. Today, in spite of Los Padres Dam blocking much of the sediment load upstream, San Clemente Dam is more than 90% silted in and completely useless as a water storage facility.

So what does fire have to do with this?

Well consider, for a moment, the fact that about a third of all the sediment now trapped behind the Los Padres Dam (an estimated 555 acre feet) arrived in a single year. 1978. The year following the Marble Cone Fire.

The Marble Cone Fire was followed by a wet winter that produced a maximum flow of 7,030cfs (cubic feet per second), as measured at Rosie’s Bridge in the Village. The Camel River stays a lot lower than that in most years, but 7,030cfs is still less than half the size of the floods that came down the river in 1995 (16,000cfs) and 1998 (14,700cfs) - and even those flows don’t compare with the Carmel River’s “Probable Maximum Flood” of 35,000cfs.

The big flows in 1995 and 1998 carried major loads of sediment into the reservoir, but didn’t approach what the much smaller 1978 flow carried. The difference, of course, was the fire.

So is the Los Padres Dam doomed to loose a third or more of its remaining (pitiful) capacity when the rain starts to fall?

Not necessarily. The Marble Cone Fire was an exceptionally hot fire burning massive quantities of snow-downed hardwood and fields of brush that hadn’t burned in many decades. And it was followed by a wet winter. The 1999 Kirk Complex Fires, in contrast, burning right in line with the estimated average natural fire interval (about 21 years), burned much more slowly and left far more brush and trees behind to hold the ground. The Kirk Complex was then followed by a relatively dry winter that only managed a maximum Carmel River flow of 3,160cfs – and no significant new siltation occurred.

The Basin Fire appears to have burned hotter – and it has certainly burned through more of the Carmel River watershed – than the Kirk Complex fire, but the short interval since the Kirk Complex and high relative humidities during the burn appear to have kept it much less intense than Marble Cone. The Basin Fire also burned earlier in the year, which may give the resprouting brush more chance to stabilize the soil before the onset of rain.

So just as with the threat of debris flows, the threat to the Monterey Peninsula’s water supply appears to depend on what kind of winter we have. It would probably take more than 1978’s 7,030cfs flow to give us a repeat of the 555 acre feet sediment disaster - and the odds are that flows won’t even reach that point, BUT … should we get the kind of rain we got in March 1995 or January/February 1998, Los Padres Dam’s usefulness as a water storage facility might well be ended, literally, overnight.

….. just another example of why the Monterey Peninsula’s near total reliance on water from a single small coastal stream has never been a good idea. 

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is (springs) from God; and he who loves (his fellowmen) is begotten (born) of God and is coming (progressively) to know and understand God (to perceive and recognize and get a better and clearer knowledge of Him)." 1 John 4:7

The Holy Spirit is looking for champions in our day. Like our friend, Randy Clark, we believe that God can use "little ole me"! That is why Michal Ann and I have hosted the Women on the Frontlines Conferences every year and have written about some of these valiant heroes in the Women on the Frontlines book series.

There are champions - both great and small - who have made it into "God's Hall of Heroes." Some of these good people we may never meet nor know until we see them in Heaven, but others, such as Rolland and Heidi Baker of Iris Ministries, are modern-day trailblazers and pacesetters from whom each of us can learn a great deal.

All too often we focus on the gigantic exploits that are done by great people of faith, but we must never forget that little acts of love and kindness often precede public displays of power. Each of us must go through a hidden preparation period in which we learn how to walk in compassion and, as in any process, we have to take "baby steps" at first. It is the path of hiddenness that prepares you to be presented before man.

Michal Ann and I have had the pleasure of knowing Mahesh and Bonnie Chavda for more than 30 years. As many already know, it was the healing prayers of Mahesh Chavda which paved the way for the Lord to bless us with our four beautiful children. I have often said, "Mahesh is not a show horse; he is a workhorse!"

In the earlier days of my ministry I had the privilege of doing some behind-the-scenes work for Mahesh's meetings as he traveled around this nation and internationally. I remember getting drinks for him, serving as a "catcher," fetching his tennis shoes so his tired feet could be more comfortable after praying with people until 2:00 AM, and enjoying the fun of non-religious fellowship with him.

What always impressed me the most, as I observed and learned from Mahesh, was how he always took time for each individual. He never seemed to be in a rush; he ministered to each person as though every single individual was the most important person in the meetings. I learned from my dear friend, Mahesh Chavda, that Only Love Can Make a Miracle!

A Revival of Kindness

The world needs a revival of kindness today. Imagine what would happen if God's people began to use their innate creativity to develop ways to show kindness to others. Simple acts of kindness, stemming from the love of God, would effect major changes in people's lives and the ways people respond to one another.

Here are some random acts of kindness that you might want to consider as you go about your daily routine.

• Give an unusually good tip to a server in a restaurant.
• While in the drive-through line of a fast-food restaurant, pay for the meals that were ordered by the people behind you.
• Give someone a word of encouragement to a person in need.
• Take time to be a good listener to someone who needs to share his or her circumstances with you.
• Surrender your place in line to someone who seems to be in a hurry, whether in a supermarket, a barbershop, a bank, or elsewhere.
• Ask others if you could pray for them.
• Help an elderly or handicapped person to cross a street.
• Help someone lift a heavy item.
• Leave an anonymous gift on someone's doorstep.
• Take bags of groceries to a poor family and leave a note that says, "From the Man Upstairs who sees and cares."
• Send cards of encouragement and comfort to the lonely.
• Distribute Bibles and Christian books to people you encounter in your day-to-day activities.
• Volunteer to help in hospitals, schools, libraries, nursing homes, and other facilities.
• Tell people about a good, good God that loves them with an everlasting love!

All of these "random acts" of kindness are seeds of compassion that will truly make a difference in the lives of others. Take a moment now and see if you can come up with other ways to express God's love in personal, practical, and tangible ways. Find something you can do to bless another.

True Compassion Is Always Personal

True compassion is always personal. In Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary we learn that compassion is "a sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it." It is more than just a feeling; it is also an action. Compassion gives you an insight into another's need and it enables you to understand their hurts, pain, needs, and heartache.

Then, as you pray about what compassion has revealed to you, you ask God for wisdom to show you how to help the other person (see James 1:5-8). God will reveal to you what needs to be done to help alleviate the other's situation.

Paul tells us, "Clothe yourselves therefore, as God's own chosen ones (His own picked representatives), (who are) purified and holy and well-beloved (by God Himself, by putting on behavior marked by) tenderhearted pity and mercy, kind feeling, a lowly opinion of yourselves, gentle ways, (and) patience (which is tireless and long-suffering, and has the power to endure whatever comes, with good temper)" (Colossians 3:12).

Here we see the qualities of compassion in a Believer's life, which he or she must put on and be clothed with every day: purity, holiness, tender-hearted pity, mercy, kind feelings, humility, gentleness, patience, endurance, and good temper. These come from deep within you, where the Holy Spirit resides; they are the fruit of the Spirit in your life.

Could it be that the farther we go on our journey with God, the more He wants us to be like Him? Do you want to be like Him? Do you want to follow in the footsteps of the Lord? Do you want His image to be formed in you?

If your answer to these questions is yes, then you must let the necessary ingredient of compassion fill your heart and motivate you to get on the frontlines of service for your Lord. Your High Priest who is touched with the feelings of your weaknesses will touch you and touch others through you. All you have to do is to be willing to let Him use you for such humble and yet noble purposes.

The Coming Harvest

I love the story of the Prodigal Son, don't you? Let's take a look at the father in this parable: "So he (the Prodigal Son) got up and came to his (own) father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity and tenderness (for him); and he ran and embraced him and kissed him (fervently)" (Luke 15:20).

This is an interesting picture of a father's love for his son. The father made it easy for the son to return home. He ran to his son when he was still "a long way off," and opened his arms to hug and kiss him. This was a "divine eruption" of compassion.

The boy had come to his senses as he ate pig slop in the pig sty. He came to the realization that he needed his dad, so he decided to return home.

There are countless "prodigal sons" in our world today - the homeless, the sick, the disenfranchised, the depressed, the confused, the addicted, the wayward, the incarcerated, the abused, and the poor - and each one needs to know that the Father loves him or her.

We need to be motivated in such a way that we would actually see these "prodigals" and go running after them, as the father in this story did. There is a coming harvest - a harvest of prodigals, if you will - and we need to be ready for it. We need the prodigals and we need their sphere of influence.

Compassion always has to be personal. It needs to flow from your heart to the person in front of you.

We need a revelation of what compassion really is and what it entails, and I hope this communiqué will help to open the eyes of your understanding with regard to this extremely important and urgent matter. The God of all compassion and comfort wants us to become compassion in the same way that He is love. He lives within you, so let Him and His miracle-working love and compassion flow forth from you.

When we begin to be truly sensitive to the needs of others and begin to minister to their deepest needs, the ruins within the Body of Christ will be repaired, and God's people will be restored. To do this kind of ministry, however, you must literally lay down your life for others.

You must put your personal desires and conveniences aside, and you must dispense true justice, practice kindness and compassion, and provide the help that is needed (see Zechariah 7:9-10).

Do you want to make a difference in the world? Then be different from others by walking in compassion wherever you are. People will see the difference, and they will want to have what you have. Not only that, but they will receive what they need through your compassion.

Get ready, for the harvest is coming. Become a co-laborer with God and go out into the whitened fields armed with His compassion and love. Like Mahesh and Bonnie Chavda and Rolland and Heidi Baker, you too can be a champion of Faith, Hope and Love! Now is the time – it is the hour of triple new beginnings in the season of 8/8/08 and beyond.

New Champions of Faith. New Champions of Hope. New Champions of Love!

James W. Goll
Encounters Network
Email: info@encountersnetwork.com

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