September 7, 2024
LEVELLAND, Texas — The small Levelland church of about 75 had been praying for a way to serve its Hockley County community, 30 miles west of Lubbock. When a microburst with vicious straight-line winds swept through the city in the early morning hours of Wednesday, May 28, they got more of an opportunity than they anticipated.
“Since I’ve been here, we’ve been praying for an opportunity to be a beacon of light to the community,” said Tony Ward, pastor of College Avenue Baptist Church since March. “This is probably not how we wanted or expected it.”
Dinnertime on May 27 in Levelland brought more than conversation around the table. A brief storm pelted the community with hail—weather not uncommon in the flat lands of the Llano Estacado. Little did residents know that the small evening storm was a precursor of what was to come.
Ward recalled waking with a start around 2 a.m. the next morning to the sound of hail pounding his property.
“It came out of nowhere,” he said. “No lightning or thunder. It just started immediately. High winds, heavy hail … probably for 20 to 30 minutes. The power went out pretty quickly.”
The Ward home, located on the south side of town, escaped the worst of the damage as the storm struck the north side with unanticipated ferocity. Some thought it was a tornado, Ward said, although the National Weather Service has only confirmed the microburst.
Ward stayed up most of the rest of the night, watching to see if anything else was coming. Dawn revealed downed power lines and trees shorn of their leaves and branches. Ward estimated that he later raked up 15 bags of leaves, as did his neighbors.
A handful of church families were affected by damage at their farms and homes. No members were injured, but some collected buckets full of dead birds, likely victims of large hailstones.
Hailstones also piled up around the church, which suffered broken windows and damage to its roof. A courtyard flooded, causing water to spread inside the foyer and into a section of the sanctuary. Members quickly showed up to help shovel hail away from the doors to prevent further water damage as the hail melted. Cleaners estimated they pumped out 600 gallons of water from the facility.
But with the inconvenience came opportunity.
“That [phone call] got the ball rolling,” Ward said. “By Wednesday afternoon, we had plans for a team to come.” An SBTC DR QRU quick response mobile kitchen from the Top O’ Texas association in Pampa with four volunteers arrived later that day, setting up feeding operations at the church.
Over the next three days, the SBTC DR QRU cranked out more than 1,000 meals for residents and first responders, Ward said, before power was finally restored to the town.
“All those volunteers were tremendous,” Ward said. “They served and never complained. They’ve been doing this for a while.”
From a pastoral perspective, teaming with SBTC DR was seamless and encouraging, Ward noted. “I didn’t have to do a lot,” he said. “For someone in the SBTC to reach out and tell us what our options were was great. We were all in. It was a joy to have them.”
The experience allowed church members to see the benefits of SBTC affiliation, Ward said, as well as how a DR ministry works in emergencies.
Members helped, too, visiting with and praying for locals who came to the church for encouragement and a hot meal.
“Several church members had meaningful conversations with visitors. We heard lots of people just being appreciative,” Ward said, adding that people were pleasantly surprised to find that the food would cost them nothing.
College Avenue announced the meals on social media. Area banks and small businesses were also organizing food giveaways, Ward said. Word spread and people flocked to the bright yellow and blue SBTC DR QRU in the church parking lot.
“For our little church, we put it on our Facebook page and the post had the most Facebook interactions we’ve ever had in the history of our church, plus 125 shares,” he added, estimating the post reached several thousand people in the Levelland area.
“We wanted to be a light in the community and to share the gospel,” Ward said. “We wanted to love on people here.”
In the wake of a devastating storm, they did just that.
SBTC DR Director Scottie Stice said of the Levelland deployment: “We were grateful for the opportunity to partner with Pastor Ward and College Avenue Baptist as we served Levelland and Hockley County. We appreciate the QRU volunteers who responded very quickly and arrived ready to serve.”
Stice also confirmed that an SBTC DR shower and laundry unit deployed to Roswell, N.M., on June 20 to support a shelter housing evacuees from Ruidoso, where wildfires continue to rage.
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This story was first published by the Southern Baptist Texan.
