i must say, the church fire may have been one of the greatest things that has ever happened to our church!
there has been a tremendous outpouring of support for our church in the community as people have learned about the fire from news broadcasts, front-page news articles and word of mouth! we’ve been receiving calls left and right from people in the community wanting to donate money to help rebuild the pirate ship and others who want to help us clean up the site! it’s been tremendous.
i guess the best part, however, is the call i received from wayne kent earlier this week asking if he and a couple of other pastors in the area could come and meet with our elders and pray for us. i didn’t expect what happened next! we spent an hour and a half together wednesday night talking about where we were as a church, what challenges we were facing (mainly the financial ones) and they helped guide us along. and then as they were leaving they blew us all away. they said, "let us know if we can offer your church any assistance in any way… and we also mean financially. let us know what you need, we won’t let you guys go under." needless to say, i nearly crapped myself.
i’ve never seen the churches in decatur do anything like this. i’ve never heard of any churches anywhere do this–not to say that it hasn’t happened before, but it certainly doesn’t seem to be the norm. three very different churches, from very different backgrounds (assembly of God, baptist, independent christian churches) have all rallied around another church in decatur and are showing one of the greatest signs of unity i have ever seen or heard of in my life!
this fire has been a blessing, it’s working to bring churches together across denominational lines, philosophical lines, and every other line that serves to divide and separate us. i’m dumbfounded and fairly speechless. all i can do is sit and thank God and stand in amazement of what he is doing through his people in decatur, illinois.
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wow… i mean wow, I can understand the speechless comment. That’s such a huge change and I am glad this is the reaction to what happened.