Kindness by church after blast spawns more kindness

GHOLSON, Texas — As soon as news broke of the fertilizer plant fire and explosion, Pastor James Stevens of First Baptist Church of Gholson contacted local media to offer the use of church facilities to victims. The church is also hosting Southern Baptists of Texas Convention chaplains and Texas Baptist Men volunteers who have responded to the crisis in West.
   
Stevens was quick to note that plenty of assistance came to his church after the announcement of FBC Gholson’s offer of help.
   
“The community is really banding together,” Stevens said. “I sent an email to KWTX, the local news station in Waco, saying that FBC Gholson was opening our church doors to anyone needing a place to sleep. Without even being asked, the [Gholson] community started bringing us blankets, food and water. Before long we had piles of it in our fellowship hall.”
   
Some of the donors were church members, but many were simply community residents who wanted to help the church minister to others.
   
“It was neat to see how the community rallied around everybody,” said Stevens, who has been pastor at FBC Gholson since October 2008.
   
Two victims stayed overnight at the church the night of the explosion.

“A lady from an apartment complex in Waco came and invited them to stay as long as they liked in a fully furnished apartment with food,” Stevens said.

With no displaced persons remaining at the church, FBC Gholson transported “four or five truckloads” of water, clothing and supplies to West for distribution to those in need, Stevens said.

Gholson is approximately 10 miles northwest of Waco and about 10 miles from West.

The church has also opened its doors to house the SBTC chaplains deployed to the area for disaster relief. At least two TBM volunteers have stayed at the church as well.

“Our church family has been providing meals. We’ve been cooking breakfast for them. They are on the ground at lunch, but we cook them dinner,” said Stevens, who noted that some of the church’s men were preparing dinner during our interview.

“It’s a great way to minister to these chaplains,” Stevens said.

“They have really been feeding us well and taking care of us there,” said Darryl Cason, SBTC disaster relief trainer and incident commander.

Others outside the community have been generous as well.

“I received a phone call at 2 a.m. Thursday from Patty Hilburn of Unclaimed Freight in Ennis, Texas,” Stevens said . “She offered to donate a large amount of frozen meat and food, but we had no way to store it.”

For several hours, Stevens tried unsuccessfully to locate a refrigerated truck.

“The next morning I got a call from Heritage Dedicated Trucking Company in Waco offering the use of one of their refrigerated trucks as long as we needed it,” Stevens said . “I had no idea they were going to call.”

A woman connected to FBC Gholson works at Heritage, but she did not know her company planned to offer the truck either.

 “It really is amazing,” Stevens said.

Unclaimed Freight delivered four pallets of frozen food and one pallet of clothing, all of which were distributed to the people of West.

“Our church wanted to show the love of Christ to those affected by the tragedy. We just think it’s the right thing to do in this time,” Stevens said.