Burned-out UMs worship in parking lot

Dec. 27 fire destroys
church, parsonage
in Central Texas town

United Methodist News Service
CROSS PLAINS—As 40-mile-an-hour winds whipped soot and ashes into her eyes, Melanie Long recalled memories of the beloved sanctuary of First UMC, Cross Plains—now a charred hull. She nearly cried.
“I married my husband in that sanctuary 12 years ago,” Long said. “Every Sunday, I would see me going down the center aisle and my husband waiting for me. I was never a member of a church until my husband and I got married, so this is my first church home.
“When I look at it now, I see nothing but devastation, but I know we’re going to rebuild and be stronger than we’ve ever been before.”
Long and 100 other parishioners expected to kick off a year of celebrating the church’s 120th anniversary New Year’s Day. But their plans went up in flames Dec. 27.
“Tornadoes of winds,” as one church member put it, fueled by dry cedar trees and grass, destroyed the sanctuary, parsonage and half the buildings in this central Texas town, 47 miles southeast of Abilene.
Despite the carnage, Long joined 165 other people, including church members and leaders from the Central Texas Conference, in the soot-covered parking lot New Year’s Day to worship God. They received assurances from the Rev. James Senkel, the church’s pastor, that God is present even in the midst of firestorms.
During Senkel’s sermon, one of the remaining church walls crashed to the ground. Several parishioners shuddered during the closing prayer when a fire engine, its sirens blaring, roared down the highway, presumably to another wildfire.
In this town of barely 1,000, wildfires destroyed 116 homes and killed two elderly women.
Four church members’ homes were destroyed in the fire, as well as the parsonage. Senkel was forced to commute 85 miles one-way from Graham, where he owns a house.
Although no parishioners died or were injured, the church was a total loss. Long salvaged the cross from the sanctuary and propped it up in the parking lot beside a burned communion chalice. The church building was insured.
Parishioner Lindy Cooper said congregants would worship at First Presbyterian Church, about five blocks away, until their new sanctuary is built.
The Rev. Shelly Brooks, Brown-wood District superintendent, said the United Methodist Committee on Relief had sent $10,000 to help with relief efforts in Cross Plains.
Donations for community relief can be put into any church offering plate, designated for Advance No. 901670, “Domestic Disaster—Cross Plains.”