December 4 – “Heart”

It is difficult at best to find out what you can do for someone in a tragedy.  It is even harder when the “someone” is a church.  And not one of those huge mega-churches with never-ending budgets and political aspirations.  No.  This one was a small congregation of 30 or 40 folks doing their best to worship God and love people.  A few nights ago the Westminster Presbyterian Church here on the Island was struck by an arsonist.  The damage to the sanctuary was extensive.  It was a brick structure, but the interior will have to be completely gutted.  I’m pretty sure they have insurance for the building, and the suspected arsonist is already in custody, but the feelings of being invaded and violated remain.

The Galveston Ministerial Alliance, of which the church’s pastor is a member, banded together and went to the site of the fire the next morning to offer prayer and spiritual support any way they could.  And I just had an interesting phone call.  Seems the fire fighters who worked that fire (Nathan was among them) heard that the church had been collecting food and toys.  Now understand, it’s not enough that these are the guys who worked hard in the middle of the night to put out the fire.  Now they were asking me if I could find out what organization the food and toys were meant for.  They want to help replace some of the items so the church can still be a part of the Christmas giving they had committed to.  You have to admit, there was some seriously creative insight in that query.  Sure, insurance will cover the basics.  But it is highly unlikely that an insurance company would cover toys and food collected for the express purpose of giving away.  And even if they did, there is no way it would be replaced in time to be distributed during this Christmas season.  Now, I’m not sure if the fire fighters will be able to put anything together in so short a time, but I most assuredly applaud their creativity and insight … and most especially their heart. 

Psalms 125:4 says, “Do good, O Lord, to those who are good, to those who are upright in heart.”

Father, bless the firefighters in their dream of helping above and beyond their call of duty.  And provide for the church just what they need, when they need it.  Amen.