LAKE WALES, Fla. (ABP) — You could forgive residents of Lake Wales if they feel persecuted, having endured two powerful hurricanes in three weeks' time. The tiny town in Central Florida bears a dubious geographical distinction — where the path of Hurricane Frances crossed the path of Hurricane Charley.
First Baptist Church of Lake Wales, one of the largest congregations in Polk County, took a double hit first from Charley, one the country's most powerful hurricanes, followed by Frances, one of its largest.
“We were at ground zero for both,” said Pastor Jeff McCormick. The church lost its steeple and part of its roof to Charley Aug. 13, along with other damage. Then Frances “ripped through most of our temporary roofing” Sept. 5, drenching the sanctuary with its six inches of rain, he said.
“Now we're staring down another one,” McCormick added.
Hurricane Ivan, the strongest storm to hit the Caribbean in a decade, is bearing down on Florida and may strike the battered state Monday or Tuesday. Baptist disaster-relief workers have suspended their work in Florida in anticipation of Ivan, evacuating 100 relief units and diverting another 25 that were headed to the state.
Since mid-August, more than 4,000 Baptist disaster-relief volunteers from 25-plus states have prepared more than one million hot meals and completed 4,000 tree-removal and clean-up projects. Last week the units evacuated Florida as Frances moved through. They returned for three days before evacuating again.
Ivan, a category 4 storm on Friday, is following the path of Hurricane Charley, which already cost Florida 27 lives and an estimated $7 billion in damage. State officials are particularly worried that another hurricane could hit wounded and vulnerable Southwest Florida, which includes some of the state's poorest residents and a high percentage of mobile homes.
This unusually potent storm season, likely the worst in 40 years, has weary Floridians wondering when the destruction will stop — and why they are the target of nature's fury.
Maylon Smith became pastor of Westside Baptist Church in Lake Wales — his first senior pastorate — in June. Within three months, his small church was hit by the destructive duo of Charley and Frances. The two-story education building, which included the church offices, is a total loss, Smith said. Five rooms leak in his parsonage across the street from the church. And now there are leaks in the sanctuary building.
But Smith says he doesn't doubt either his family's decision to move from Souderton, Penn., or the will of God.
“If we had it to do all over again, even with two hurricanes, we'd do it again,” he said resolutely.
Smith's confidence has more to do with his understanding of God's will than any pro-and-con assessment of his brief but rocky Florida experience. While God's purposes are not always clear right away, he said, “his will is ultimately unified.”
Smith quoted from Romans 11:33-34, a passage favored by Christians who emphasize divine providence. “… How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became his counselor?” (New American Standard Bible)
“Certainly there are a lot of questions,” Smith said. “'Why is it that two storms came through Lake Wales.' But when you question his providence, you end up frustrated.”
Still, sitting in his makeshift office, now set up in a room behind the sanctuary, Smith conceded with a note of weariness, “It's been a long haul.”
The ordeal of the last month clearly has taken a toll on the young pastor and his flock, hidden in an out-of-the-way, impoverished neighborhood in this town of 10,000. The congregation — 175 in weekly attendance — now faces months of cleanup, insurance claims, repairs and rebuilding.
“The temptation is to try to get it all done at once,” the pastor said. So far Westside Baptist has “improvised” to cope with the damage, he said, and he is not worried about the congregation's resilience.
“We've got a good, solid core,” Smith said. “And we're not only going to pull through it, we're going to thrive.”
This day Smith is surveying the new damage caused by Frances, accompanied by church member Charlie Moore, a member of the building and grounds committee. Moore has a simpler explanation for the punishing coincidence of two hurricanes — it was the arrangement of high and low pressure zones that steered two hurricanes into Lake Wales.
About a mile away in downtown, Pastor McCormick of First Baptist and Barry Hooten, minister of education and administration, are dealing with contractors beginning a second round of repairs to the sanctuary roof. The soaked carpet from the sanctuary is piled outside and the remaining contents are covered with tarps.
The congregation, which averages more than a thousand a week in its two worship services, was able to use the sanctuary after Charley. The church even housed 240 disaster-relief workers after the first storm. But Frances has left the sanctuary unusable for several months. Charley's damage to the church's $8 million facilities was estimated at $800,000, but no estimate was available for the latest storm.
Worship will be held in the fellowship hall for now. “It could be worse,” said Hooten. “We are able to rearrange. Our church is not damaged, just the buildings.”
The home of virtually every church member has been damaged in some way, McCormick said, but their faith has not. “Their faith has really been amazing.”
“We don't feel singled out by God,” he continued. “The Scripture says he sends the rain on the just and the unjust.”
Because of First Baptist's visibility in the community and role in the cleanup, the church attracted a lot of media attention. “We've been really pleased with how they portrayed us,” the pastor said. “They portrayed us as the neighbor we want to be.”
Church members “have been receiving compassion from their neighbors and showing compassion to their neighbors,” he said.
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