Building like a Berean

PAIGE—The Berea Builders of Ridgeway Baptist Church in Paige broke ground on their rebuilding efforts on Jan. 6, and the better part of a new house was up by Feb. 15, plus a foundation for a second home.

Paige is a small community 11 miles outside of Bastrop, the scene last fall of the worst wildfire in Texas history.

“Berea Builders is a vision I had while our church served as a shelter for fire evacuees,” said J.R. Hopson, the pastor of Ridgeway. “Talking to people who had no idea how they were going to start over because they did not have insurance and lost everything broke my heart.”

It is those without insurance that the church is intent on helping, Hopson said.

Sprawling east out of Austin’s backyard, Bastrop County used to be a beautifully wooded area. The Lost Pines forest—a Texas treasure named for its mysterious cluster of pines surrounded by miles of oak—is within its borders and the Colorado River winds through its center. It was a beautiful vacation spot for many and home for more than 74,000 people.

But that was before the September wildfires. Labor Day weekend changed the landscape of Bastrop County. Three major fires burning through the area merged into one massive blaze 16 miles long and six miles wide that devastated nearly 40,000 acres of land. Hopson estimates 60 percent of the pine trees in the area were either burned or had to be cut down.

“I’m still amazed when I drive back out there and I’ve seen it a hundred times,” Hopson said. “When you drive into an area where this fire came through, there’s nothing. There’s absolutely nothing but charred remains and trees that are no longer green, but just sticks in the air. Whereas after a hurricane or a flood or a tornado even, there’s visible debris, there’s stuff still standing. Here there’s nothing. It’s absolutely gone.”

By the time the blaze was officially contained on Oct. 10, two lives and more than 1,600 homes were lost.

“The physical appearance of it is not ever going to be the same,” Hopson explained. “But as people realize that it’s not about trees and houses and material things, I think they will begin to recover. Sure there will be that long-lasting mark, but they’ll begin to regain some normalcy.”

As soon as the fires broke out, Ridgeway Baptist Church sprang into action. Paige Community Center became a shelter for evacuees from the surrounding area, and Ridgeway decided to provide food for them at the church. The community center quickly became overwhelmed and Ridgeway opened its doors and started taking in evacuees just a day or two after the fire started. The church continued sheltering and feeding people for the next two weeks.

Cleanup started immediately after the area was safe to re-enter. Disaster relief teams from the SBTC, Texas Baptist Men and other states—12 conventions in all—began work in the area on Sept. 6, two days after the blaze broke out.

“Southern Baptists were instrumental in providing shower and laundry units and a massive volunteer force to help with cleanup,” Hopson said.

Volunteers converged on Bastrop from as far away as California and Tennessee. By the time the clean-up efforts ceased, over 5,000 volunteer days had been served, 450 homes had been cleaned, the gospel had been presented 256 times and 79 people had made professions of faith. Most important, the wave of help and support by volunteers touched the all people of Bastrop with the love of Christ.

FALLING THROUGH THE GAPS
“Now most of the cleanup has been done,” Hopson said. “It’s moved into the rebuilding phase. For the people who had insurance, you’re immediately seeing their houses going back up. Or they’re moving a trailer in. But the people who didn’t have insurance, who were barely making it in the first place, they’re at a temporary location or in a FEMA trailer because they don’t have the money to rebuild.”

That’s where Berea Builders has decided to step in and make a difference. Their mission is to build houses for those people who were caught without insurance and don’t have any alternatives. They developed an application process where each case is reviewed and the family’s circumstances considered to see if they are eligible.

A month after work began, one house was partially finished and the foundation for another had been laid. In one month nearly 100 volunteers gave their time and efforts to help build more than just the physical foundation of the home they worked on.

The biggest weekend for the building project occurred on Jan. 27, with 50 volunteers from as far as Oklahoma and as close as their neighboring communities converging on the building site. In those two days they were able to nearly finish the first home and begin work on the second.

“We had the first one painted, roofed, plumbed, and began to hang sheetrock before everyone left,” Hopson said. “After all is said and done, it will have taken just a little over five weeks to have completed a 1,500-square-foot house.”

The team intends to continue building as long as it has the funds to do so. Hopson sees the rebuilding as a long-term ministry, one he would like to take wherever there is a need for it.

So far, the plans only extend as far as two houses, but they have also built several storage buildings for other families and hope to be able to help many more in the future.

“It provides a new start for these families,” Hopson said. “They have their dignity back. But they have also gotten to experience the love of Christ through others.”

The biggest challenge facing the builders is funding. The cost of building one of these houses is around $40,000—relatively inexpensive but a hefty cost for one congregation.

“To put it in perspective,” Hopson said, “if 400 people gave $100 that’s a house for a family who is still living out of a FEMA trailer. So churches with 300 or more members could easily build a house by taking up a love offering. It’s that simple.”

The rewards for their efforts are such that people who would never have allowed a ministry team to enter their homes now have a new openness.

“People are making themselves more vulnerable because of their need,” Hopson added.

Inquiries about Berea Builders may be directed to Hopson via email at rebuildbastrop@ridgewaybaptistchurch.org.

To donate to ongoing DR efforts or learn more about the work of SBTC Disaster Relief, visit sbtexas.com/dr.