Months after Hurricane Michael battered their buildings, churches taking steps to recover

Feb. 17--BAY COUNTY -- Months after Hurricane Michael damaged the Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in Panama City, Senior Pastor Jesse Nelson reflected on the ongoing recovery.

The church sustained damage to all its buildings. Parts of their stained glass windows were blown out, the roof was torn off and pieces of debris are still on the pews and floor. Still, Macedonia's spirit is not deterred.

"Right now the next step is for us to continue to pray to seek God's guidance on how He wants us to move forward, also to envision how we can build for the future," Nelson said. "That's been sort of our motto, not rebuilding the past but let's build for the future. That takes time to contemplate, to develop a plan, to also seek out counsel and wisdom on how that future looks."

Macedonia is one of several churches damaged by the storm considering how to move forward and taking steps every day towards the future. Nelson wants to build Macedonia to "ensure it's far-reaching in our efforts to serve our community as well as our members." Sunday services have been ongoing.

Macedonia is working with a contractor to help the church recover and Nelson said the timeline to put things back together could be six to eight months. That could start in the next couple of months but beginning that work depends on looking at finances, Nelson said.

"Like many of the churches, we didn't have wind storm damage insurance, so therefore all of the costs are being paid by us," Nelson said. "That's us looking at our budget, finances, assets and other liabilities to determine how fast we can move forward. We do have several members that are putting their monies toward the rebuilding efforts here at the church and we've also received several donations from other churches and ministry organizations in order to rebuild."

Nelson said there is probably upwards of $750,000 in damage to Macedonia's campus.

At St. Andrew United Methodist Church, also in Panama City, Pastor John Blount said they are using an outdoor tent and their youth building since their other buildings are damaged. The walls of the St. Andrew sanctuary were torn off by Hurricane Michael, but now have temporary paneling to cover up what used to be a direct view of the sky from inside.

St. Andrew got a new roof over parts of their damaged building but still deals with leaks. Blount said there is "red tape" with FEMA and insurance companies to overcome before construction starts and rebuilding could take a year or two, which he hopes starts "soon."

"The ball is moving but I feel like we're pushing it uphill," Blount said. "We're going to rebuild everything ... this is going to be a big project."

St. Andrew has also gotten donations "from all over the country," Blount said.

"Our worship numbers have been steady -- we haven't really dropped any," Blount said. "We never stopped worshipping on Sundays, never stopped fellowshipping on Wednesdays."

First Baptist Church Lynn Haven is also continuing on, said Pastor Tom Daniel. All of First Baptist's buildings were damaged. Pews are still covered in plastic sheets, the carpet has been taken out of the sanctuary and the church sign along Highway 77 is still crooked.

"The sanctuary and the children's building, we're going to have to tear it down to the metal frame and rebuild," Daniel said. "The two other buildings on the other side, they're going to have to be demolished."

One building that was usable was converted into office space for First Baptist and Sunday services are being held at the Lynn Haven Elementary cafetorium.

"We haven't done any repairs yet. We're waiting on our insurance to settle," Daniel said. "It's been slow. It's such a massive claim. It's going to be over $5 million dollars."

The claim as far as an amount could be settled by the end of the month with the help of a public adjuster, Daniel said. First Baptist has lost approximately 50 people who attended, some of them military and elderly, though attendance has been steady.

Donations have come in for First Baptist and Daniel said they hope to be back in the sanctuary by Christmas.

"We've already hired an architect and a builder. They've been doing preliminary plans to get us in a position to where when we get the money, we can start building," Daniel said. "It's devastating but you've got to pick up where you are and move on. You can't sit back and lament over all your problems. You've got to move forward."

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