Bush fires devastate Victoria

With temperatures reaching 47C and the hot northerly winds blowing down off the desert, bush fires ran rampant over Victoria yesterday. It was quite difficult to tell exactly where all the fires where as a smoke covered the land but we knew it close. Today revealed that it was in fact just to the north and also east of us here at Coldstream. We had just left Marysville on the Friday, and by Saturday 90% of the town of Marysville had been destroyed. Unconfirmed reports are saying that the Christian centre that we stayed in has also perished. Thankfully everyone was evacuated in time, but many others across Victoria weren't so fortunate. Please join in prayer for the families of the 60+ people who have lost their lives and for the hundreds who have lost everything in the fire.

This is all that is left of Marysville where I was staying the last few weeks

Another picture of Marysville

MAF Orientation

Well the MAF general orientation at Marysville is almost up. This weekend it will be time to move on again as I head back to Coldstream to attend the MAF flight orientation which will last around 1 month.

In the meantime here are a few pics from Marysville.

The 2009 MAF orientation team



El Kanah Christian centre in Marysville, VIC


It got up to 43 C last week for a few days. And one of the issues that brings is bush fires. One started less than a mile away (i wasn't me!), but thankfully the fire helicopter worked till dusk dropping water and managed to get it out