Havelock Wesleyan Church (taken in 2007)
Blogging is not always about happy things.
This time blogging is about a sad thing.
Some of you know that we belong to the Wesleyan church. Havelock Wesleyan Church to be precise.
Tuesday at around 6:15 our local fire department got a call for mutual aid to the Havelock Fire Dept. Dave is in our local fire dept. When he heard on the pager that the Havelock church was on fire.
Dave flew out of the house. He was afraid for the pastor's kids. You see just 1o minutes before he had called at the parsonage and he knew that two of the kids were at home alone (FYI they are old enough to be at home alone in case anyone is wondering). He was scared that they were in the church. By the time our fire dept got there this is what they saw...
(Glen Mullen photo)
Five fire departments fought valiantly till the wee hours of the morning to save the parsonage. Needless to say, nothing could be done for the church.
Our little church in the vale is gone. Nothing is left.
I am having a hard time writing this. I know it's just a building and nobody was hurt. The parsonage was saved but still.....
A friend took this video. This was when he arrived on scene.
Within 14 minutes it was mostly gone.
It was our second home. So many memories are in there, not to mention all the records of every marriage, baby dedication, deaths etc....for the last 100 years.
The church structure is gone, but our "Church" is still here. We will prevail.
(karla Kelly photo)
Sunday we had a service in the parking lot. It was bitterly cold, but nobody minded. We said our goodbyes to our church.
I hadn't seen it in person, only in photos. When we crested the hill I just bawled like a baby. What is it about becoming a Christian? I never used to cry at anything before becoming a Christian. Now I cry at everything. Oh well, I'd rather be a Christian cry-baby than a tough athiest.
The strange thing about all of this is that the Sunday before we only had half power in the church. The power company had been called. (Just to clear something up, the cause of the fire hasn't been determined yet.)
Dave, J. and I got to church late so we had to sit in the balcony. Half way through the service Dave asked me if I smelled something. I did smell something funny. Nothing like a grass fire (like everyone was doing these last few weeks). It smelled like smoldering plastic. We asked other people if they could smell something, but nobody else smelled anything.
Maybe it was a look at something ahead.
Have a Blessed Day
Lisa
