Music by Mark Cooney.
When Becky and Ben Dominguez found out their house was gone, they were on their perfect family vacation.
A full family vacation, in the Caribbean, on a boat, with their two kids — life was good.
Except thousands of miles away in Redding California, the house at 418 Moonstone Way had imploded from the heat of the Carr Fire tornado. They woke up the morning of July 27 to a text and a photo: they’d lost everything they had, and the house sitters had gotten out with just a few things and the two dogs.
“We went up onto the fly deck where you can see out over the ocean and Ben had a Bluetooth speaker and we played worship music, and we know that we know that God is good and that a fire is not from the enemy,” Becky said. “We were determined that it wasn’t going to steal our peace, that we were going to worship through it and we weren’t going to allow this experience to change the way that we felt about God or about each other or about family.”
The Dominguezes had insurance, and were lucky enough to get the money quickly, but they still had nowhere to stay. When they arrived home in Redding, they crashed at Ben’s sister’s home. One of the first things they did was visit Bethel Church, the megachurch in Redding that attracts visitors and congregants from all over the world. In fact, it was one of the reasons why Becky and Ben moved to Redding, five years ago.
Becky and Ben credit the church as their support system. Bethel helped them with their ash-out, when a burned lot is cleared and sifted through to find anything of value the fire might have left behind.
“One of the more powerful things that I’ll always remember is when we circled up at the end and we prayed and encouraged and prophesied to each other,” Ben recalled. “[Our pastor] was like, I see you guys dancing through your ashes.”
Becky added: “Sometimes you have to fake it till you make it. And in the moment I absolutely felt joy and I absolutely felt peace that we’re going to be okay.”
Ben and the team looked for his brass sextant — a nautical tool — but to no avail. But he says he’s amazed at some of the things that did survive.
Emotionally, the loss wasn’t easy.
“We have a lot more on our plates now because we’re trying to balance yet another thing in addition to raising two small children and working a lot,” Becky said. “So that brings some tension into relationships sometimes. Or you just get really tired and burned out.”
The house they ended up renting was provided by one of Becky’s contacts from the rotary. It’s just blocks from their old lot, so the neighborhood is familiar even if the home isn’t. But the Dominguezes are planning on rebuilding on their old lot, and got the plans approved from the city last month. They will lay the foundation for the new home on May 22, a little less than a year after the fire.
“For me it’s this aspect of moving forward, bringing hope to the community, but also for our family to say that even if something really bad happens to us, we’re going to stand our ground and say, you know what, we’re going to rebuild,” Ben said. “We are going to move forward.”
Note 5/25/19: When Becky Dominguez said “A fire is not from the enemy,”she meant to say “A fire is from the enemy.”