I Had Been To The S. F. Area Off And On For Over ...

I had been to the S. F. area off and on for over 20 years. I would stay from days to weeks depending on the performance schedules of the groups. I toured the city on my off hours and never really took notice of the cities history. Several years later my wife and I were planning our stay at seminary. Before we went, we took the time to acquaint ourselves with the area. When we arrived we were put in off campus housing located in Corte Madera. Our view from our 2nd story apartment consisted of the freeway, San Quentin, and the Richmond refineries, beautiful.

I also took the time to acquaint myself with the fault lines that ran through the area. I wanted to make sure we were on solid rock if, and when, the big one came. I found that we were on one of the safest areas of the bay. Our "point" was on solid rock that went down to the depths of the earth. So far in fact, that we would feel only a shake from a large scale quake.

We left in July of 1989, sensing God’s leadership to come back to the Phoenix area. We left great jobs, good friends, and a ministry. We came back to a house that was damaged from the renters, no jobs, and a church that was encountering difficulty. In October of the same year the quake hit the area. The bridge that Deb drove collapsed dropping the top lanes on to the bottom ones. The area we had lived in received little damage to speak of. The destruction occurred to those houses and business built on the sandy foundations. Many were killed and the cost was high.