Highwood Highlights No. 23. February 2009
The Narbethong-Marysville Bushfires. Highwood Property Miraculously Saved:
The following is an account that was prepared by Garry Romano:
"Sabbath 7th Feb 2009 began warm as forecast by the Bureau and temperatures rose to the predicted high 40’s.
"At about 3.30 PM Denis Stanley rang me to advise a fire was burning in our vicinity. We went outside to take a look and noticed a smoke cloud had formed over the new dormitory about an acre in size out of which warm to hot ash was falling down upon us. About four kilometres to the south west the nearby range showed a red glow along its ridge line and it was obvious that a substantial fire was burning somewhere off to the south west of Highwood. No other warnings had been received. As we surveyed the surrounding ranges other fires were seen burning as well. One particularly large billowing smoke cloud developing to the northwest about five kilometres away increased our concern. Instantly we prepared for the possibility of a major fire. I checked the fire reserve water tanks, advised everyone I could find nearby, and drove to the health centre. Earlier Dr Bird had taken the health guests to Lake Mountain outside Marysville to escape the heat. This area was already in danger and Dr Bird and party rushed back to Highwood narrowly escaping the blaze. [Sunday revealed that this very blaze had burnt Dr Bird’s house to the ground. All they had left was the Sabbath clothes in which they stood. Fortunately they still had both their cars.]
"Knowing that time is especially critical in fire situations I jumped into the van to check the only two avenues of escape, the Black Spur road to Healesville, and the highway to Narbethong. Firstly I drove toward Narbethong three kilometres away. By the time I had travelled twelve hundred metres pieces of flaming bark up to sixty centimetres long and a lot of other debris was flying over the van crossing the road diagonally from left to right. I made a quick u-turn and headed back to Highwood, ruling out the Black Spur road to Healesville as a possibility. Cars were going in both directions not knowing which way to go. It seemed that we would have to stay and prepare for the fire.
"We were in a strong position in any case with generator power, fire hoses , plenty of bore water, plenty of cleared land to provide a buffer and twenty people to ready the place. We hosed down the Health Centre filling the gutters with water and wet about a dozen blankets. We knew that God was watching over us and we all had prayed for deliverance.
"The main power went off at around 5pm and the generator came on line.
"Watching the progress of the fire, time and again the wind shifted to our advantage. As the big smoke cloud originally off to the northwest rapidly spread and accelerated we could hear the eerie, echoing, roar of the fire around Narbethong quickly blowing towards us from the north. At the same time as the fire hungrily sucked in large quantities of oxygen it lifted the dust on the drive way in front of the health centre ten metres into the air with the wind reaching about sixty kilometers from the south. Then suddenly the predominant northerly wind took up this southerly direction, blew back upon itself and the fire subsided. Later our faith was lifted by God’s word as Sister Hannah Higgins reminded us of Psalms 29:7 “The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire.” The flames had come to within three hundred metres of the forest to the north east of Highwood and burned to the edge of the bitumen highway. It did not cross the road. Unfortunately it was this northerly fire which had already destroyed Narbethong with nine precious souls lost. As always in disasters some houses were untouched, while others just metres away were inextricably destroyed.
The next day we were surprised at the extent of the devastation when we drove to Buxton and on to Marysville where there was heavy loss of life just fifteen minutes from Highwood. We have nothing to bring to God except our praise and thanksgiving for His delivering us from the flames. Not a single thing had burned on the one hundred and two acres at Highwood."
Note from David Bird: A special thank you to all persons who have contacted us personally and expressed their sympathy and support. We are just one family among thousands directly impacted by these fires. We did have a few other belongings that we had taken to church that were saved. Our greatest loss was that our beloved next door neighbours died trying to defend their home. The photograph on the left is of David Bird at Highwood on the 7th Feb. about an hour after the main fire front, which was coming from behind the trees seen here, had changed direction. The wind was so strong that while David was on the roof of Highwood Health Centre his glasses were blown off and landed on the ground amongst some bushes. Miraculously (after prayer) he found them by crawling on his hands and knees!
On Saturday the 7th Feb the smoke cloud became so intense that it went dark, like this picture on the left shows, at about 7:30 pm instead of the usual 9pm. The glow in the background here we think was actually caused by the sun as it lowered in the sky. However, the glow from the Marysville fires looked very much the same.
As mentioned above, Highwood was completely spared in the fires and we are taking bookings for health guests as usual. Our March programme is scheduled to start on the 1st of March 2009.
The Highwood personel have had opportunity to minister in the local community as a result of the fires. For example, one of our members is manning the relief supplies station at the local inn and therapists have been giving free massages to CFA workers.
Subscriptions Notice: Miraculously the subscriptions list for these newsletters was preserved up to September 2008 as Dr. Bird decided to bring a safety copy of the list to Highwood in September '08. His other back up copies were kept at home and were lost. Thus, anyone requesting a subscription in the period from 21st September 2008 to 20th January 2009 will not appear on the address list and we have no way of recovering their email address. So if you know of anyone, perhaps you could pass this email on to them and they can resubscibe if they wish to (be sending a message to davidbird777@bigpond.com).
Highwood Testimonial:
Sadly, almost all of the testimonial records and photoes were lost in the Bird's house fire. The following is a testimonial from Genemo from a recent programme that was not lost (though we have no photograph): "I am so happy and thankful for everything you have done for me. You cared and looked after me in many ways. Thank you very much."
Natural Therapy for Type II Diabetes Mellitus.
Type I diabetes occurs in early life and is associated with the complete annihilation of the insulin producing cells in the pancreas due to an auto-immune reaction. Interestingly, there is convincing evidence that a component of diary milk predisposes at least some individuals to this auto-immune reaction. Type I diabetics will need life-long insulin medication unless pancreatic cell transplants or something similar becomes a viable option.
Our focus in the article is, however, on type II diabetes which generally occurs after childhood and is normally the result of lifestyle factors, often in combination with a genetic predisposition to diabetes. It is now occurring in so-called westernised nations in epidemic proportions and the incidence is predicted to increase. Persons with advanced type II diabetes will require medication but often the disease can be delayed or even remedied by improved lifestyle and natural therapies when in its early stages.
The mainstays of natural therapy for type II diabetes are exercise, diet optimization and stress control. Stress control is important as stress results in higher levels of the adrenal hormone cortisol. Cortisol is a steroid hormone that negatively effects blood sugar levels. So anything that will control excessive stress is going to be helpful. Exercise is useful as a relaxing therapy but perhaps even more importantly regular exercise encourages glucose in the blood stream to move out and get used in the muscles.
Food is a big issue for diabetics. All diabetics need to understand what glycaemic index (GI) means. Foods that are otherwise healthy (e.g. free from animal fat or harmful additives) with a low GI are best. These foods tend to have a slower release of their sugars into the blood stream and to give lower blood sugar levels. High GI foods are the worst and should be used in a limited way by diabetics or avoided. There are some foods that have unexpected GI results which is why consulting the GI tables rather than guessing is a must. For example most brown rice has a high GI. Normal potatoes are also high. Sweet potatoes or kumara are low. Broad beans have a high GI but most, if not all, other beans are low. Dried apricots are low. Honey is often of medium GI. GI tables are freely available on the Internet or from diabetes support groups.
Some foods have specific medicinal anti-diabetic properties and should be used freely by diabetics as long as there are no other reasons why they cannot be used. These medicinal anti-diabetic foods include alfalfa, raw ginger, unrepined bitter melon, garlic, onion, brewer’s yeast, cummin seeds and ciapo sweet potato.
Highwood Highlights is a brief and simple message sent out monthly by Highwood Health Centre, www.highwoodhealth.org www.highwoodcollege.org (Ph. 03 5963 7011). To subscribe send an email to davidbird777@bigpond.com with "subscribe" in the subject line. To unsubsribe please put "unsubscribe" in the subject line. Please send other email correspondence for Dr. Bird to birddavid777@yahoo.com as the Highwood newsletter email address is checked infrequently.
Disclaimer: Any medical comments made by Dr. Bird are not to be taken as personal medical advise and are presented for general educational purposes only.