Brehm Center’s Response to the Los Angeles Wildfires
Dear Brehm Friends,
We are grieving with those on our own team and in the broader Fuller community who have had to evacuate or have had greater losses in the Los Angeles fires.
Our office on the Fuller campus is just a stone’s throw away from multiple fires, and we know this crisis will deeply change the lives of so many, and affect the work that we do to serve artists and ministry leaders in California and beyond. We pray that those of you who are local have found safety, and that your homes have been spared.
As we watch entire lives collapse, art may seem like a strange offering, but sometimes the voices of others give us words when we have no words. Sometimes we are paralyzed and don’t know what to do. Poet Luci Shaw, in a period of grief in her life, wrote this simple poem.
What I Needed to Do
I made for grief a leaden bowl
and drank it, every drop.
And though I thought I’d downed it all
the hurting didn’t stop.
I made of hope a golden sieve
to drain my world of pain.
Though I was sure I’d bled it dry
the void filled up again.
I made of words a silver fork
and stabbed love in the heart,
and when I found the sweetness gone
I chewed it into art.
—
I’ve found myself thinking, “What is needed to do?” What good is the mission of the Brehm Center in the midst of so much tragedy in our own local community? How do worship and the arts matter now, with such great loss? Do we make a bowl for grief, or offer a sieve for hope - which feels quite impossible right now?
So now, we offer simple words. Poetry.
The Psalms are perhaps our greatest resource for spirit-guided poetry. Last night I found myself meditating on Psalm 46:
Psalm 46
For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. According to alamoth. A song.
1 God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
—
Within your own capacities, we urge you to help where you can:
The LA Art World Fire Relief GoFundMe is supporting artists affected by the wildfires.
The Los Angeles Food Bank is taking donations to provide meals for displaced victims.
The Pasadena Humane Society is taking donations to support displaced animals.
Our initative, Imagining Worship with Kids, have a lyric music video for you and your children who may want to process and pray.
If you or someone you know in the Brehm community has been affected by this natural disaster, Fuller Seminary has a list of resources that students and faculty can contribute to or use.
Finally, if you know someone, or you yourself need resources to process trauma, Fuller’s Thrive Center offers many free resources, including this interview with our very own Dr. Pam King and Dr. Cynthia Eriksson discussing psychological tools for resilience and recovery.
With you in grief and hope,
Shannon Sigler
Executive Director, Brehm Center
