Fire destroys UPC church

[searching]

A friend of mine notified me that her church in Illinois burned down completely today. They are accepting donations for rebuilding, but I wanted to ask first if that would be ok to do. I will post the link to the story in the morning, and it might have the info in there about donations. The church is in DuQuoin, which is just a rural area in Southern Illinois, and the pastor there has been there for several years. His name is C.L. McKinnies, and some of you folks may know who he is. His name is well known in Illinois I am told. Anyway, thought I'd let you all know about this.

Me...

[ddc101]

Thank you so much for posting this.I will pray for that church family.Fire is such a tragic thing.There are things that can never be replaced.Thank God no one died.lv sis.c

[searching]

The pastor mentioned that his entire library is burned up, as well as several hundreds of sermon notes. Thing is, they were adding on to the church, and it survived! They can still have services there but it is devastating. I believe the church was built in 1948. I'll post the link to the story tomorrow.

Thanks for praying, that's worth more than money.

Me...

[soldout4Jesus]

will be praying, too.

[truemessianic]

I will be praying for this church, and will pray for it as I send this post.

[searching]

Here is the link to the story:

http://www.southernillinoisan.com/rednews/2003/04/11/build/top/TOP004.html

Sadly, I don't have the donation address yet. However, for those that want to donate, here is the email and phone number of the reporter that wrote the story:

writeon1@shawneelink.net 618-625-2006

The story also says that the church was built in 1976, I have no idea why I thought it was 1948, however, the pastor has been preaching for about 40 yrs.

Anyway, I told my lady friend about this and she is appreciative of your prayers.

Me...

[ApostolicLady]

Hi Everyone
The church is in our section and I have attended many services there.Many of my friends attend there and i know that they are at such a great loss today. I cannot imagine seeing all the memories go up in smoke. I know my pastor was there with Bro McKinnies yesterday as they are good friends. If youd like to read the story about it here is the link to the story in our local. Please remember that congregation in your prayers

paperhttp://www.southernillinoisan.com/rednews/2003/04/11/build/top/T

[searching]

Apostolic Lady, how have you been? Haha, I won't disclose it here, but we know each other. I have added you to my AOL list once again, as I took you off because I hadn't talked to you for a while. I also added you to my MSN and Yahoo messenger lists. Hope to talk to you soon kiddo!

Hope you don't lose sleep over who I am. If you see me in here, send me a private message. In fact, I just met another online friend who also knows you well, and we are meeting this year with you! Yeah, it's something finding out that people make plans with you without your knowledge, isn't it? Hehe, good to see you girl, it's been a long time.

Me...

[BroDane]

I am sorry to hear about the Loss of the building. However, this can be a good time to see what God wants to do next for his people! God always does above and beyond what we ask or think and I wont be surprised that in the next few months we will hear of a miracle of how God supplied this need!! Keep me informed.. In my Prayers..Dane

[foreverblessed]

Bro. Dane you are so right! God can bless his people with better than what they had before.

When my house caught fire last summer, I thought my world was caving in. When I was able to move back into the home six months later, everything was restored and new. This also included the money to purchase new furnishings. There were many great blessings that came out of my fire. We were in the middle of restoring this home, and the upstairs level (damaged by the fire) was the only area of the house that hadn't been restored. God took my trial and turned it into a great blessing for me.

I know fires can be stressful though, I will keep this church in my prayers.

[nightwatchman]

The LORD can take a tragedy, an turn it into a blessing.

[survivor4christ]

This is true...

I have shared this testimony on this board before, but will again.

Over ten years ago when Hurricane Andrew blew through Louisiana, it spawned a few tornadoes in the Laplace area, where the church I was born again in is located. The pastor and his family lost everything they owned. They lived in a trailer behind the church and gave up all and up and moved from Texas to start this church.

The churches in the community all got together and raised up enough funds to build my pastor and his family a two story, 4 bedroom house in a nice neighborhood. It was beautiful!!

God can indeed take that which the enemy means for bad and turn it around for good!!!

I will keep this church in prayer...

Love, Sis. Wenona