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FARMERSVILLE—After ice storms pelted North Texas on Dec. 5, Pastor Bart Barber and members of First Baptist Church of Farmersville seized the opportunity to help the community 35 miles northeast of Dallas in Collin County.
First Baptist Farmersville opened its doors to shelter those displaced by the storm. Since Dec. 6, the church has fed hundreds and provided showers and lodging for dozens.
Volunteers from the church also ministered directly to the community with chainsaw teams from the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Disaster Relief ministry deployed to the Farmersville area within a day of the storm.
The icy blast woke Barber and his wife, Tracy, early Dec. 6 when they heard limbs snapping in the front yard of the church parsonage, across town from the church. By 5 a.m., Barber was checking on the situation in the town. The city had cut power because of five electrical fires, Barber said.
Barber phoned SBTC DR director Jim Richardson that morning. On Saturday (Dec. 7), an SBTC DR chainsaw team headed by Jim Howard, pastor of West Side Baptist in Atlanta, Texas, arrived in Farmersville.
“Within 12 hours of the storm, we talked to the Farmersville city manager, Ben White, and I was able to tell him that the SBTC had a DR chainsaw unit on the way and that we were going to open a shelter at FBC Farmersville on Friday night,” Barber said.
The city was able to restore power to the church, which is near an electrical substation, Barber said.
“We opened the shelter at 5 on Friday and we served a hot meal at 6,” Barber said.
As of Monday afternoon (Dec. 8), 41 people had received shelter at the church. Volunteers had prepared and served more than 300 meals, Tracy Barber said.
The family of Kelley and Scott Wagner sought shelter at First Baptist. The Wagners, who attend the church, have seven children, five of whom live in the Wagners’ country home. The youngest is 9 months old.
“We lost power and tried to tough it out with a generator and space heater,” Kelley Wagner said .
“They have actually let us use the entire preschool wing for my children,” said Kelley, whose husband works for an Oncor energy subcontractor. Scott Kelley had been working round the clock to restore electricity to the community. First Baptist has also provided meals for the Wagners’ older son and Scott’s parents, who remained on the family’s country property to look after the animals.
Instead of regular services on Sunday, First Baptist encouraged all members who could safely do so to come to the church for breakfast at 9:30 a.m., and an abbreviated worship service at 10. More than 60 members came, “from kids to folks 65 and older,” Bart Barber said.
Following the service, First Baptist members joined the SBTC DR chainsaw teams in assisting the community, cutting down trees, clearing limbs and debris and helping elderly citizens.
The SBTC chainsaw teams have been housed at First Baptist. “They are very hospitable here,” said Doug Scott, DR volunteer from Atlanta, who added that SBTC volunteers expected to be in the Farmersville area for several more days before possibly heading east to the Paris area.
Facebook posts, cell phone calls and referrals from the city of Farmersville requesting assistance have been addressed by the people of First Baptist.
“Over the past decade, we have been very active in helping others in this kind of situation,” Bart Barber said. “We have responded to the need of those affected by hurricanes Rita, Katrina and Ike. We have sent volunteers to Joplin, Mo.
“We now get to mobilize here in town for our neighbors, doing what we have been doing for our neighbors around the world,” Bart Barber said.
“I am not surprised by how our church has responded,” he added. “I am very proud to be their pastor.”
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