Saturday, May 3, 1997

Churches recover from losses to fires

By LORETTA FULTON

Regional Editor

As a minister, the Rev. Mark Chadwick knows that from adversity comes growth.

"That's why we're going with a metal building this time," he quipped.

Chadwick and his congregation at First Baptist Church in Lueders grew in their knowledge of fire prevention from a Dec. 26 blaze that destroyed their church. This time they're going with a metal frame.

"Heaven forbid, if it ever should burn again, the structure will survive," Chadwick said.

But the congregation learned more from that devastating experience than how to build a safe building.

"I think it's been a good growing time," Chadwick said. "People really have had to draw together."

Members of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Eastland are learning the same lessons. Just three days after the Lueders fire, an arsonist set fire to the historic Eastland church.

He may have damaged the building beyond use, but he didn't kill the church.

"We didn't look back; we looked ahead," said Joe Housson, the church's junior warden and long-time member.

The World War II military chapel, brought to Eastland from Camp Wolters in Mineral Wells, will be razed and a new church erected on the same site.

"We have to do what the Good Lord wants us to do," Housson said.

Apparently the Good Lord is wanting both churches to rise from the ashes and be shining new examples of indomitable spirits.

With only 15 people attending the Episcopal church on average Sundays, it would be easy for the group to use the fire as a sign that it's time to quit. But Housson and his fellow members think they are filling a need and plan to come back strong.

The church currently meets in an old house next door that served as a parish hall. It will be sold and moved when a new church is built, Housson said.

In Lueders, groundbreaking for a new 5,200 square-foot building was held April 23, and foundation work already is in progress.

"Everything has been torn down and carted away," Chadwick said. The new building is expected to be completed in three to four months.

In the meantime the congregation is crammed into the children's activities building, which wasn't damaged in the fire.

The church's insurance wasn't enough to rebuild, so the congregation has raised an additional $20,000, through donations and fund-raisers.

"We've received checks from all over, as far away as Kansas," Chadwick said.

Local contractor Barry Walcott is doing the work as economically as possible, he added. The church is making use of donated hymnals, chairs and a piano.

The new building will house a 200-seat auditorium, fellowship hall, four classrooms, nursery and Sunday School office.

Plans for a new church in Eastland have been drawn for a 4,000-square-foot church that will seat 130 people.

The Eastland church was fortunate to have adequate insurance coverage for its new building.

"We were blessed by having a good insurance agent," Housson said.

The tiny church receives financial support from the Diocese of Fort Worth and shares a vicar, the Rev. Alan McGlauchlin, with the Episcopal church in Comanche.

The church suffered heavy smoke damage in the fire, and almost all the contents will have to be replaced.

"We saved the altar," Housson said, and some of the old woodwork is salvageable. But all prayer books, hymnals, vestments and the organ will have to be replaced.

The church's bell tower fell in the fire, and the bell sustained too much damage to be usable. However, a platform will be built beside the new church for the bell and a plaque.

Housson is philosophical about the arson that destroyed his church and the man who confessed to it. The 24-year-old man who was indicted for the crime remains in Eastland County Jail. The night of the fire he admitted to having too much to drink and to vandalizing other places in town.

"We're a Christian group; we ought to pray for him," Housson said after the fire.

He still believes that.

"The Good Lord works in mysterious ways," he said. "Maybe He's using us for something."

Both Housson and the pastor of the Lueders Baptist Church are looking at their experiences through the eyes of people who believe things happen for a reason.

"If Christ hadn't been crucified we wouldn't have a savior," Housson said. "If this church hadn't burned, we wouldn't have had the opportunity to rebuild."

Likewise, the Lueders pastor, Chadwick, sees a potential the church wouldn't have had without the fire.

After the new, larger church is built, people will look back and say, "How did we ever do it?" with such a small facility, Chadwick believes.

Chadwick and Housson know it's hard to see what good will come while in the midst of adversity, but they both hold on to the faith that better times are ahead.

"We feel the Good Lord's leading us," Housson said.