Ike-damaged church flourishes with help from Virginians

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the

rivers, they will not overflow you. (Isaiah 43:2a)

SAN LEON?In the middle of this storm-ravaged community still struggling to overcome the devastation of Hurricane Ike stands a lighthouse. And the beacon of San Leon Community Church is burning brighter because of the help of Virginians from Thomas Road Baptist Church and God’s Pit Crew.

“We pray this will be a place where your name is lifted up and souls saved because you have raised up this church as a lighthouse,” prayed Jonathan Falwell, pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church, Lynchburg, Va., in an invocation dedicating the newly remodeled church on Jan. 30.

Even before the floodwaters rose last Sept. 13, the members of San Leon Community Church had begun reaching out to this seaside town known for being rough around the edges. There were Friday morning food distributions, Thursday evening meetings of a Christ-centered 12-step program, and lots of door knocking. One congregant said after the storm everyone knew to come to this little chapel with their supplies and their needs.

As soon as local officials allowed residents to return to their homes?there were many who rode out the storm and found themselves desperate for help?the few dozen members of San Leon Community Church led by their pastor, Bob Gibson, stationed themselves in front of the church on the corner of FM 646 and Ave. H handing out ice, water, food, and buckets filled with cleaning supplies. With the help of out-of-work shrimpers and locals from the Vietnamese community, Friday morning food distributions resumed.

Many in this congregation had flooded homes, some losing everything. And yet this fellowship made the needs of their neighbors their priority.

GOD PROVIDED

No matter the need, Gibson and church members testified to the provision of God in the weeks following the storm. Church secretary Dana Poole said one day the volunteers were told some elderly people needed special incontinence supplies. The church ministry had been able to distribute a wide variety of supplies brought to their location by generous donors but this specific item was not among them. Poole said it was not 30 minutes after the request was made that an individual brought some donations, including the specific items needed.

James Kingcaid, a deacon, told of how a huge supply of cleaning buckets sent from a Mississippi church was quickly depleted.

“We were almost out. We had six left and a call came from a Presbyterian church in Temple. They brought 750 more,” he said. “That’s when you know you’re doing the will of God.”

Before all was said and done more than $2 million in supplies, food, water and ice were distributed to the residents of San Leon. And, that, Gibson said, was done with only $118 in the church’s bank account.

Meanwhile, the damaged church building had to wait. All that remained of the chapel was a gutted shell and brick veneer. The wood-frame parsonage was also stripped to the studs and bare floor. The Sunday School building which had stood on concrete stanchions had simply floated to the back of the lot as the waters of Galveston Bay covered this portion of San Leon eight feet high.

The church did not have flood insurance, Gibson said. It just was not something the tiny congregation could afford.

It was just three days after Hurricane Ike passed through that Randy Johnson and a team from “God’s Pit Crew,” a Danville, <st1:St