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Covenant Churches Escape Full Wrath of Hurricane
OVIEDO, FL (August 16, 2004) - Evangelical Covenant Churches in the path of
Hurricane Charley were spared serious damage, reports Southeast
Conference Supt. Kurt Miericke in an update to Covenant News Service
this morning.
"All of the churches that I mentioned on the last update (Friday) are
fine – the hurricane missed all of them," Miericke noted. Those six
churches include Venice Isle Evangelical Covenant Church and Bay Indies
Evangelical Covenant Church, both in Venice; Community Covenant-Spanish
Lakes Church in Nokomis; the Evangelical Covenant Church of Tri-Par
Estates in Sarasota; and Trailer Estates Covenant Church and Bayshore
Covenant Church, both located in Bradenton.
That report was affirmed in a separate email message from Covenant
missionary to Mexico Cindy Hoover. "I'm told that none of our Covenant
churches were hit - the storm ended up further south than our group of
churches that are part of the trailer park ministry," she said. Hoover
will be in the southern Florida area for another two weeks.
However, there were tense moments for one well-known Covenant couple –
Craig and Dotty Anderson - as they huddled in their home in Punta Gorda,
considered by many experts to have been the hardest hit by the storm,
which packed winds of 145 to 170-plus miles per hour as it moved ashore.
Anderson is a former associate superintendent of the Central Conference
and Dotty worked for many years in the Department of the Ordered
Ministry. Miericke reports their home was not seriously damaged,
although the general area was devastated by the storm.
Approximately one million people were without power in Central Florida,
Miericke said – power to his home was restored Sunday evening. "The
Audubon Park Covenant Church is alright, but there are trees down all
over the neighborhood," he reported. Orlando had winds of more than 100
miles per hour, cutting power to homes and businesses. "There's a lack
of food and people are trying to distribute ice," he continued.
"Everybody's going to be alright here, but there was significant damage.
We had a huge part of a pine tree just miss our house. It landed on my
driveway and when I opened the door of our garage, there was the pine
tree. And there were four different trees in our roads, so it was hard
to drive out of our neighborhood. We had a neighbor who had power tools
and cut the trees so we could drive out."
"Here at the new Covenant church in DeLand, everybody came through the
storm well," reports pastor David Shaw. "At our house on the West side,
we didn't even lose our power or cable television. We were very
fortunate. Saturday we spent the day cutting down trees for a church
family in Deltona who lost everything in their yard. The storm has given
us some opportunities to serve others. Worship yesterday consisted of 35
people . . . the high school where we meet had been used as a shelter,
so we had power and air conditioning for worship, unlike most churches"
Gasoline, ice and fast food are all difficult to find, Shaw reports. "If
you don't have power, you can't keep food long, and you can't use power
tools to begin to fix anything. When you see a convenience store that
has power, you know it by the long line of cars trying to get into the
parking lot and up to the gas pumps."
A conversation with pastor Dave Johnson in Venice revealed that area had
plenty of rain and wind, but little damage, reports Bob Tenglin,
chaplain at Covenant Village in the Fort Lauderdale area. "Orlando was
hit rather hard," Tenglin added, noting that the Audubon church did not
suffer any damage. "We have heard reports from people up north that they
heard or think that all of Florida is affected - without electricity and
with widespread damage," he continued. "Not true, but the path of
Hurricane Charley (Fort Myers area to Orlando and Daytona) does have
major damage and loss. There was concern of another hurricane – Earl -
coming our way and perhaps on the same path as Charley, but reports this
morning say that it will stay far south of the United States and move
toward northern Mexico." Tenglin asked for prayer for the affected areas
and encouraged people everywhere to consider sending support for relief
efforts.
Covenanters interested in supporting hurricane relief efforts can send
donations to Covenant World Relief (CWR) in care of the Evangelical
Covenant Church, 5101 N. Francisco Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60625. Gifts
should be earmarked for the Hurricane Relief Fund. "Covenant World
Relief will respond to assist hurting individuals and affected
congregations in Florida as appropriate," said CWR Director Jim Sundholm.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
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