We are very grateful to God for His protection and care over the family of our dear Brother Ben and Sister Naomi Thiel and their precious little children, Heidi, Emmett and Amalia. “The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.” Psalms 34:7.
The following is an account from Brother Ben of what happened on their way to the Queensland Youth Camp on Friday 21st April 2017:
Quote:
“How quickly the tangible can become intangible!
This evening we really want to thank God for His protection. While we are sad to have lost our little caravan with some of our belongings – as a family we are all well and really thankful that no one was hurt and that we managed to unhitch and get the car away from the van in time!
We were all packed up and heading to our church youth camp, just a short drive from where we are currently staying on the Sunshine Coast. As I was driving I looked in the side mirror and noticed a little bit of smoke coming from the back of the caravan. I hurriedly pulled off the road and frantically unhitched the caravan from the car and shifted it away from the caravan. I then raced back and endeavoured to put out the fire with a fire extinguisher and the 20 litre water container on the back of the van. Two more very helpful motorists came with their extinguishers, which helped, but we couldn’t get access to the battery area where an electrical problem was causing the fire. I put up the caravan to try and gain access with the extinguisher but by this time the fire was getting stronger and I was suffering from breathing in toxic fumes and smoke. So we just threw out a few things we could lay our hands on in the front of the caravan to rescue them and then helplessly sat back and watched the fire eat up our little house.
Finally, the fire engines, police and ambulance all came… once the caravan had pretty much all burned up, they took charge of the situation. Many thanks to the motorists who helped try and put out the fire, the wonderful older lady who helped comfort our traumatised children while the whole thing happened and the fire department and police. What a start to our Sabbath and youth camp!
Experiences like this really make you realise how frail everything we have around us is, how quickly anything we have can be reduced to nothing. How important to not have our vision on the present here but on the future!”
~ Ben Thiel
