Walnut Valley Baptist Church celebrates year
Walnut Valley Baptist Church held a special service Wednesday to look at “what a difference a year makes.”
A tornado, one of five that ripped through Garland County on April 25, 2011, caused more than a million dollars in damage to the facility.
The EF3 tornado cut a 16.78- mile- long path through Garland and Saline counties at 6: 07 p. m., from 1.3 miles west southwest of Ozark Lithia to 3.7 miles south southwest of Reform.
The Rev. Tim Forrest, pastor of the church, said he wanted to allow the community an opportunity to “look back” and presented a slideshow to the congregation.
“One year earlier, this was what our church looked like,” he said of the photographs. “I want them to take in and appreciate everything God’s done in the past year.”
Forrest said a member of the church, Rep. Bruce Westerman, R- District 30, said he met someone from a church in Mississippi whose church was struck by a tornado the same day, and “they’re still not in their building.”
“I want us to recognize how blessed we really are,” Forrest said. “I think it’s a good thing to reflect on how God has worked in these ways, and then challenge the church.
“God has allowed us to build back bigger; God’s allowed us to build back better. God didn’t bless us just because we’re special; God blessed us with a reason and a purpose.”
He said when rebuilding the church, “we added sanctuary space, with the addition of 125 seats. We added a new multipurpose kitchen that allows us to do a lot more for the community.”
“We added eight new classrooms, and one of the new classrooms we added was a computer lab with 25 computers in it,” he said, adding it benefits their partnership with the Fountain Lake School District and their weekly afterschool program, Marvelous Mondays.
“Pre- tornado, our computer lab was an itty- bitty room, and we had eight computers in it, because that’s all we had room for,” he said. “The kids had to rotate in, and now we have 25.”
Forrest said additional parking and vehicles were also added, and both parsonages were rebuilt after being destroyed in the storm.
“We want to celebrate that this time last year, there was a lot of hurting, but now, a year later, look what God has done,” he said.
Forrest said all of the construction was completed in December 2011 and the church held a service in that part of the building on Christmas day
He said the entire facility is 32,000 square feet, and to rebuild the damaged areas of the church, such as the gymnasium, “they had to tear everything apart, then start building.”
“The first two and a half to three months were all destruction,” he said. “They were only actually building less than three months. That’s really amazing; that’s miraculous in this day and age.”
Forrest said most of the $ 1.2 million of construction and services, funded by insurance, involved in the rebuilding, were performed by local companies and individuals, which provided an economic benefit for the community.
He said the church held a benefit supper for those involved in these efforts in February.
Forrest said the tornado damage and its aftermath created a unity in the congregation and community.
“The blessing to all this was we saw we really do care for one another, and this community really pulled together as a community,” he said, adding on the night of the tornado, he stayed at the church.
“I stayed here on a couch in my office on blocks, just in case water got in,” he said. “I laid here thinking about, ‘ OK Lord, what do you want done and don’t let me get in the way and mess it up.’
“It’s been a really neat journey. I would not wish devastation of a tornado on anybody, but I would wish the experience of unity, love for one another and watching God work in ways you’ve never seen him work before for everybody.”
Forrest estimated about 100 homes in the Walnut Valley community were impacted by the tornado. He said instead of immediately fixing its own facility first, “we as a body of believers wanted to help our families more than work on this building.”
“From day one, after the tornado, we were helping others do things, and we continue to do things,” he said. “I am very proud of the men and women in this congregation that when there was difficulty in our community they rose to the occasion.”
Forrest said after the church’s service Wednesday, they held a “tornado party” with food and refreshments served.