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, Va., ministry, arrived in the Bay Area. Over the course of two weeks they distributed half a million pounds of supplies from the parking lot of Praise Chapel in Webster.

 

During those days Johnson took time to see first hand the damage wrought by the storm. And he met Gibson, affectionately known by his congregation as Pastor Bob. After seeing the work the lone congregation was doing to meet the needs of their community while putting aside their own, Johnson said God pressed upon his heart to help the church.

Four months later three tractor trailers baring the bright red logo of God’s Pit Crew pulled into the lot of the church followed by Crew volunteers and a bus filled with members from Thomas Road Baptist Church.

 

After the September trip Johnson had returned to Danville and took the opportunity during a conference to speak with Falwell about the project. God’s Pit Crew had the desire, but not the funds. Johnson said Falwell readily agreed to have his congregation foot the bill. Each Sunday through the month of November Thomas Road took up a “Thanksgiving” offering. In the end they raised $60,000 to rebuild the church.

 

“Then Randy threw the curve ball at me,” said Falwell. “He said, ‘Now we need the people.’”

 

Thomas Road associate pastors Tim Grandstaff and Lucky Billings said their church has begun in the past two years encouraging and preparing their congregation to be involved in the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief ministry. The church hosted a DR training session last fall.

 

For many of the Thomas Road volunteers, like Bill Joyce, the Texas trip was their first disaster relief project. An electrician with his own contracting business back home, Joyce said when he gets back home to his church he is going to share with the deacon body the blessings of giving of oneself.

 

Joyce said he knows the congregation of San Leon Community Church will be blessed by what he and the 80-plus volunteers did for them, but the blessing—from an abundance of God’s provision and love, he said—falls upon the volunteers even more.

 

And those volunteers were chomping at the bit Sunday, Jan. 26 as they waited in the cold and dreary church yard for services to conclude so their work could begin.

 

Inside the chapel church members, some bundled in blankets, sat on frigid metal folding chairs (one of the many Godsends during the course of the months). Though lit by the lamps of new ceiling fans, the black walls of insulation and studs absorbed much of the light. But their spirits were not dimmed. Member after member testified of the love of God displayed through the church as shouts of “Amen” and “Praise the Lord” rose in affirmation.

 

EXTREME MAKEOVER

When the final benediction was given Gibson and his flock were ushered from the church and told not to return—no peeking—until the “extreme makeover” of their church and parsonage was complete. There was a lot of work to be done before the Friday evening services dedicating the remodeled facilities.

 

Crews wasted no time. Chairs were cleared. Piles of drywall were hauled in and taped and floated into place. By Monday the 1,800-square-foot chapel was almost completely walled in. Across the yard the parsonage was being converted to office space.

 

In addition to the interior work, a new roof was put on the chapel and a gas line had to be replaced. Without the assistance of professionals, skilled and licensed tradesmen would have to be paid in order to complete work on this project.

 

Licensed electricians and plumbers—from God’s Pit Crew and San Leon Community Church—oversaw critical work on the grounds and the two structures. And none of the tools and supplies, including custom made furniture from Virginia, could get to the work site without dedicated truck drivers. One 18-wheel trailer acted as a mobile tool shop. There is even room in the back for an ATV when God’s Pit Crew is deployed to sites with limited accessibility.

 

With each day the darkness receded from the chapel. Beige walls and white trim now reflected the light from the shiny chrome ceiling fans. Aqua blue faux-stained glass windows were replaced with clear glass and sunlight poured in until the mini-blinds were hung.

New cabinets, hand-made by a member of God’s Pit Crew, were hung from the walls of the kitchen that sat at the back of the chapel. By Thursday the vinyl flooring was being put down and more furniture, specially crafted for this church, was being unloaded from the trucks. The nursery, not much bigger than a large hallway, had, along with the new walls and paint, new furniture for the tiniest members of the congregation.

 

On Friday morning, just hours before the dedication service, San Leon Community Church looked like a church again. Interlocking cushioned chairs replaced the pews that had been tossed around like sticks in the flooding. A new sound system with speakers hanging from the front of the chapel softly played “Through It All.” Final touches including prints of grand sceneries and Scripture, artistically rendered crosses hung from the walls and upon the communion table stood representations of the old and new.

 

An old crystal cross had been retrieved from the mud that covered the floor of the church following the flood. Unscathed, it was cleaned and put back in the chapel. An angel made from bright red glass and lead trimmings graced the other side of the table. The angel had been made by a woman in Virginia who wanted each recipient of the blessings of God’s Pit Crew to have one.

 

By 5:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 30, church members, curious to inspect their new home, began filtering onto the lot. Fresh landscaping lined the entrance to the chapel and parsonage and the grounds had been racked smooth to cover the tracks of tires and foot paths etched in the lawn over the course of five days. The members would be the first to see the extreme makeover and be on hand at 7 p.m. when Pastor Bob and his wife, Carol, were due to arrive.

 

Wide-eyed members stepped into the small foyer and, turning to their immediate left, entered the chapel and exclaimed their approval.

 

“Oh … my!”

 

“Is this the same church?”

 

“Amazing.”

 

“It’s beautiful.”

 

“How in the world do you say thank you for something like this?”

 

Tears flowed freely as San Leon Community Church members hugged one another and the volunteers who brought new life to their damaged and broken place of worship.

 

“Pastor Bob’s going to have a heart attack,” was proclaimed.

 

Soon after the inspection started, Tracy Stone, pastor of Praise Chapel where the volunteers had been bunking down all week, called those gathered onto the church lawn to await the arrival of Pastor Bob and Carol Gibson. With the Thomas Road Baptist Church bus parked between the road and the church, the pastor and his wife would not be able to see the building until the bus was moved.

 

Cheers rose up as the couple, chauffeured by Kingcaid, rounded the corner.

Emulating the routine from the television show “Extreme Makeover,” they began to chant, “Move that bus! Move that bus!” It rolled forward to reveal to the Gisbsons a remodeled church and a revived congregation.

 

There were more tears as the couple toured the building. Gibson, passing through an aisle of hugs and handshakes finally made his way to the front row of the chapel along with Carol, and Kingcaid and his wife, Sharon. The volunteer builders lined the walls of the church as the dedication service got underway.

 

Johnson told the congregation the volunteers considered it a privilege to do the work.

 

“We’ll always feel we have a part in reaching this community,” Johnson said. “We’re going to leave here more blessed than you.”

 

Tim Grandstaff, Thomas Road Baptist Church outreach pastor, said he had watched the program “Extreme Makeover” and “wanted to do something like that one day.”

He said, “What better extreme makeover to do than the house of God?” He told the congregation they have something to be proud of in that their work as a church had “put them on the map.”

 

Falwell, who flew to Houston Friday afternoon for the dedication service, testified to that fact. He told the congregation that just that afternoon, after he told some residents why he was in town, “their faces immediately lit up.”

 

The couple proceeded to tell Falwell what San Leon Community Church had meant to the people of that town in the aftermath of the storm.

 

“This church has been a lighthouse,” Falwell said. “The storm could have wiped this church off the map forever but God said, ‘No.’”

 

NOT THE FIRST TRIAL

And this was not the only time the church had seen difficult times since its establishment in 1948. When Gibson arrived as pastor two and a half years ago, the congregation was down to four people. Before the storm, the church rolls were up to 35 people. That number has since doubled.

 

Gibson said the goal of the church in two years is to have 200 members and then send out 60 of those to plant a new church. Multiply and divide, he said. With 44 baptisms in 2008 and doors that were once closed to the Vietnamese people in the community now cracked open since the storm, Gibson is confident God will make it work. The first Sunday morning service after the remodel put them even closer to that goal. Gibson reported 115 in the worship service.

 

Reading from 2 Chronicles 5 and 6, Falwell likened the rededication of San Leon Community Church to that of the temple in Jerusalem. The spirit of the Lord filled the temple as Solomon called the Israelites to its dedication. So too, God’s spirit will fill the small church in San Leon as they remain faithful to the Lord, Falwell proclaimed.

 

The building will not save people, he said, but the love of God as demonstrated by the congregation will draw people in. He encouraged them to fill the worship hall with families being restored, people who have walked away from God, and people struggling with the burdens of life.

 

“Show this community there is something different about the people who call this church ‘home.’”