Months after Hurricane Michael battered their buildings, churches taking steps to recover
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,
"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."
"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
At
St. Andrew got a new roof over parts of their damaged building but still deals with leaks. Blount said there is "red tape" with
"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."
"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
"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
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.
Donations have come in for
"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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