The Los Angeles Fire Zone - Paddling The Palisades

The Los Angeles Fire Zone

I was walking Duke and Daisy while talking to Chad and Julia as they drove to the airport at the end of their anniversary trip.  It was a brainstorm - Chad and Julia both felt their hearts break for Los Angeles, but they had chosen to stay focused on their marriage during the past week.  Now the floodgates were open.  With their experience in the Carr fire and the Lahaina Fire recovery efforts, they were 100% certain they were called to assist in LA - but where do we start?

Chad - if people even knew we were CONSIDERING this, half of them would be furious. We have GOT to do it!

We realized that Chad and I could fly down and create a 24 hour window in 6 days.  We’d go full sprint, then we would return with a strategy for a longer stay 3 weeks later.  As ideas bounced around in a thousand different directions, Chad said, “We could paddle.”

My brain locked in on that idea - I loved it!  It’s the brand, it's Chad's calling, it’s the new wine skin, it’s controversial-he’s even taken some heat for it in the past. Oh yeah - It was my chance to stand and be counted for my belief that the unseen is MORE powerful than the seen …literally stand up …on a board!

Choosing to pray first—before jumping into action—can feel like wasting time when there’s so much tangible need. But just like a lumberjack sharpening his axe before swinging at the first tree, we knew that if we didn’t allow our hearts to be broken for what breaks His, we’d be showing up unprepared for the long haul. Recovery isn’t a sprint; it’s a commitment, and without a heart anchored in God’s vision, even the best efforts can fizzle out under the weight of exhaustion, frustration, and shifting public attention. We weren’t just there to check a box—we were there to carry something deeper, something that would sustain us long after the headlines faded.

But we knew this wasn’t about efficiency; it was about endurance. If we were going to show up for the families who would need support for years, not weeks.

So we made the choice that didn’t make sense to many. Instead of rushing in with quick fixes, we grabbed our prayer mats and paddled 10.5 miles in the open ocean, holding space for the land and its people in prayer. There was no road access, no simple way to stand in the wreckage and let it sink in—so we let the waves carry us to a place where we could see the devastation with our own eyes, allowing it to cut us deep, to mark us. The logistics weren’t easy—securing boards, managing transportation, navigating the conditions, and, most difficult of all, managing the mind chatter that we were making a mistake, that it was all pointless. But we knew this wasn’t about efficiency; it was about endurance. If we were going to show up for the families who would need support for years, not weeks.  We needed hearts that weren’t just willing but prepared and we didn't want to rely on OUR power, we wanted to surrender to HIS.

When it was time to execute, we ended up with an amazing team of 9.  We all met at the parking lot just north west of the santa monica pier: Chad, David, Kim, Brianna, Dana, Trent, Joe, Chase, and Kara.  Some would take to the ocean to pray, some would pray from the land, some would help us if conditions changed on the water, and some would serve with Pastor Daniel who was on his way with a few members of his church to serve food and minister to anyone who showed up.

We paddled.  We prayed.  We laughed.  We sweat.  It was therapeutic, it was fun, it was adventurous and it was powerful.  About 2 miles in the coast looked like a construction site on pause, then 6 miles in the coast began to look like a war zone.  As far as I know from movies and stuff :)  We were feeling the weight of where we were and what we were praying into when the wind came up REALLY strong from behind us.  I held out my arms to be a sail and gain some free distance - and we all kind of realized that going back could be rough.

It was an amazing decision - we were able to pray over every inch of coastline that was affected by the fire.  We even had the opportunity to pray over the house of a friend.  We face-timed him and he showed us which pile of rubble was his.  He watched his screen with his head in in his hands as we declared God’s favor over the upcoming months as well as endurance for the multi-year process ahead.

Here’s what I came here to say - For those who feel called to be part of long-term restoration, give yourself permission to pause before you act. Let yourself grieve, let yourself feel, and let God sharpen your heart for the work ahead. Because when the urgency fades and the world moves on, it’s the ones who have truly seen—who have allowed ther hearts to break for what breaks His—that will still be standing, still serving, still loving. 

As Chad writes in his book, The Risk FactorT, “There is nothing safe about taking a risk.”  Embracing this mindset, we stepped into the unknown, trusting that our willingness to be vulnerable would lead to deeper, more enduring impact - it worked!