There will be a celebration in music and re-dedication of a church’s worship center which has been out of its sanctuary for almost a year at North Orange Baptist Church 4575 N. 16th Street, Sunday, August 1, starting a 10:45 a.m.
It will be a year August 27 that Hurricane Laura with winds of 130 miles per hour made landfall at Cameron, LA, and swept across western Louisiana and southeastern Texas. The backlash of the storm slammed into Orange hours later, doing horrendous damage to structures throughout the city and surrounding area,
One of them was North Orange Baptist Church. Though vicious wind storms and floods such as Rita, Ike and Harvey had previously evaded the most of the campus of the church and allowed it to be a sanctuary for refugees of those storms and even Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
But Laura left air conditioning units atop the building twisted and driven into the roof of the church. Laura inflicted huge damage to the roof, flooded sections of the sanctuary and the Senior Adult wing of the church, enough, in fact, to shut services down.
As if that wasn’t enough, on October 9, Hurricane Delta followed an almost identical path and did further damage to the Christian Life Center roof, dumping water into classrooms and interior walls in the gymnasium and foyer.
When all the storm damage was tabulated by insurance adjusters it exceeded $2.5 million. This Sunday, August 1, with few exceptions, the church’s worship center will have completed restoration of all those damages and will return home.
Music and Worship Pastor Brad Holmes will lead a collection of worship music that represents the ages of the 72-year-old church.
Lead Pastor Chip Anthony will give a dedicatory address, dedicating the restoration to service to the people of Orange.
There also will be the presentation of 50-year membership awards to those who have reached that plateau.
“We want our church to be restored a symbol of service in Orange, not just for our congregation but to meet the spiritual needs of all the community,” said Pastor Anthony. “The community has looked to North Orange Baptist as a beacon of support in times of trouble, and we want that support, both spiritually and physically, to continue.”
The worship center of the church has been completely restored with a larger platform area to serve its music presentation as well as worship services.
Rearrmgement of seating in the Worship Center hasl taken place because of the loss of half of its pews, damaged by water intrusion This has brought a new look to the sanctuary with a half dozen tables and comfortable seating to facilitate particularly families with young children.
Other improvements include:
Complete replacement of air conditioning units in the building has been accomplished.
Re-roofing of the building because of wind and water damage and air conditioning units slicing open portions of the roof.
The Christian Life Center sustained roof, water intrusion and floor damage.
Floors in all buildings have been replaced, new interior walls have been replaced and all interior facets of the building have been repainted.
A new gymnasium floor soon will be installed
Restrooms throughout the complex are being renewed.
A new sound and LED lighting has been accomplished.
Despite the hurricanes and the COVID 19 pandemic that shutdown services for a while, the church has continued to meet in its Christian Life Center.
The CLC has been the hub of housing and feeding of workers and refugees of storms and floods over the past 16 years. The Texas Baptist Men also have used the building facilities in it rescue efforts in the Orange storms and the floods at Deweyville.
Besides meeting the needs of hurricane victims, it also has met the needs of education and school recreation needs, in being home to Little Cypress-Mauriceville Common Independent School District’s elementary school when it was pushed out of it facilities after Hurricane Harvey and Tekoa Charter School whose building was also heavily damaged. Tekoa continues to lease facilities from the church.
The church has opened its doors to the YMCA of Southeast Texas for its after-school program at LCM and its summer program for children in Orange,
When the Orange Community Services needed helped distributing food to senior citizens for the Southeast Texas Food Bank, NOBC came to the rescue and once a month distributing food boxes to about 65 senior citizens on the third Thursday of each month.
“We hope our members and friends will join us in Sunday’s activities,” said Pastor Anthony. “We look forward to hosting those looking for a church home and our friends in the community.”
-Harry Wood-
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