Groundbeaking on new church marks six months since Sutherland Springs shooting.

More than a hundred in Sutherland Springs begin building ‘lighthouse to the community’

SUTHERLAND SPRINGS — Sherri Pomeroy’s hair hung around her face. She took a deep, shaking breath and began to speak.

“Lu White. Robert Marshall. Karen Marshall. Annabelle. Bob Corrigan. Shani Corrigan. Peggy Warden. Dennis Johnson. Sara Johnson. Keith Braden. Joann Ward, with Emily and Brooke. Haley Krueger. Therese and Richard Rodriguez. Karla and Bryan Holcombe. Tara McNulty. Danny Holcombe and Noah. Crystal Holcombe, with Greg and Emily and Megan. And Carlin Brite ‘Billy Bob’ Holcombe.” Then 26 soft bell chimes. And then silence. Six months ago, the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs was the scene of the deadliest mass shooting in modern Texas history. A tent, a fence. Ambulances. Police. Media. People wept. Others, traumatized, said nothing, their faces blank.

More than a hundred Sutherland Springs community members attended the groundbreaking Saturday morning for a $3 million church that will rise on adjacent land. It will have 250 seats, about 150 more than the old church. And it will have two turrets: one with the bell that always signified the end of Sunday school and the beginning of services. And another, with a light.

“We purposefully planned this groundbreaking on today’s date, to help us remember to celebrate the lives that our friends

and family lived, not to dwell on the manner in which they died,” Sherri Pomeroy said.

Sherri and Frank Pomeroy, the pastor of the church, lost their 14-year-old daughter Annabelle and their best friends. The Holcombe family lost nine of its own, including an 18month-old and an unborn child. The small town east of San Antonio was brutally shattered by the loss.

It’s been piecing itself back together ever since.

“We’re counting the blessings, we’re counting the good that has come from it. But it doesn’t make it easier,” said Deborah Braden, who was shot four times and lost her husband in the massacre.

The sunny day started with a consecration of the grounds at each of the four corners of the church.

New tiles were laid in the flowerbed outside the sanctuary of the original church, which is now a serene, white memorial to those who were lost. Each one has the name of a victim who died and a cross.

Shortly before they took the stage, the Pomeroys, who had just returned Friday from National Day of Prayer events in Washington, shook hands and hugged guests as they poured in.

When people began to take their seats, the two had a moment. Frank leaned into Sherri and asked if she was OK. Clutching her tear-soaked tissue, she nodded. He kissed her cheek.

“This community, what they endured six months ago today, it was unspeakable evil. Unimaginable ugliness,” said Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who spoke at the event and had visited the survivors just days after the massacre. “And yet, from that horror, emerged beauty. And love.”

Toward the end of the ceremony, all family members of victims and survivors were called forward. Dozens approached the stage, a few wounded survivors using canes or wheelchairs to get there, and 10 took shovels and helmets.

They initiated the start of a new First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs.

“This will really be a lighthouse to the community. Even after I’m dead and gone, you’re going to see the church from a long ways away,” Frank Pomeroy said. “And that’s the testament of those 26 lives that were lost, and survivors. Their blood was spilt, but that light’s going to shine.”

The family of victims and survivors held hands, gripped shoulders, touched heads. They prayed. And then they poised their spades above the earth.

“We are the survivors of Sutherland Springs,” Sherri Pomeroy proclaimed from the stage. “And evil will not overcome good.”

And fresh earth was turned from the ground.