06 Jun Mainstreet Church Mobilizes to Help Tornado Victims

A Youtube video showing destruction in Millbury from the tornado.

The Mainstreet church (Walbridge, Ohio), is mourning the loss of two persons from the church who died in a tornado Saturday night, June 5.

Mary Walters and her son Hayden, 5, died in the storm as the family slept. Mary’s husband, Ryan, and their daughter, Madison, 9, are hospitalized; Ryan is in critical condition. One member of the Mainstreet youth group also lost his father to the storm. Altogether, at least five people were killed.

The tornado ripped through Millbury, a 1200-person bedroom community of Toledo located a few miles from Walbridge, causing extensive damage to homes and city buildings.

At least 100 homes were destroyed or damaged, along with a number of city and commercial buildings. The township police and emergency medical services building were, by one report, destroyed. The 911 operators, who worked in that building, had to be relocated. The high school, where graduation was to be held on Sunday, June 6, also sustained heavy damage.

Mainstreet Church canceled Sunday services because of damage to the church and the devastation to property and people’s lives around them.

The church website says, “Regardless of the damage to our building, we will be the church to the community around us.”

In that spirit, Mainstreet has mobilized to help care for people in the community, working to prepare and distribute food and help people with shelter and clothing.

Mainstreet opened its campus at 705 N. Main Street in Walbridge as a shelter for persons in need. They call this their 705 Campus; it was the church’s main facility until they relocated in 2007. Bags and gloves, among other things, are available here so people can help their neighbors with cleanup efforts. The 705 Campus is also open for anyone needing shelter Sunday night. Food, clothing, water, and toiletries are also available there.

On Sunday night, Mainstreet began serving food to people at the new 795 Campus. They also began delivering meals to volunteer workers and displaced people.

Marty Pennington is senior pastor of Mainstreet Church.

View a collection of Flickr photos showing the destruction.

02 Jun Anchor Baptizes 12 Persons

Pastor Tim Hallman (right) and layman Terry Sutton bring Matt Beck out of the water.

Pastor Tim Hallman gave a short message in the main lodge.

Anchor Community Church (Fort Wayne, Ind.) baptized 12 persons on May 30. About 135 people attended the service held at the Stillwater Retreat just south of Fort Wayne, Ind. Anchor has held a baptismal service at Stillwater for the past ten years.

The day began with a brief service in the main lodge–singing, a short message from Pastor Tim Hallman, and the testimonies of four of the baptism candidates. Then everyone grabbed chairs and headed down to the lake.

Nearly all of the persons baptized were fairly new to Anchor. They included four couples. In three cases, partners assisted Pastor Tim Hallman in baptizing each other. A 13th person planned to be baptized, but she got called in to work that morning.

A potluck meal followed the baptisms. And then people hung around for a fun afternoon of swimming, canoeing, fishing, games, and fellowship.

Here are more photos from the day.

19 May Shoreline Completes Phase 1 Building Addition

Senior Pastor Steve Fish takes a video tour of the new facility.

On Sunday, May 16, Shoreline Church (Oak Harbor, Ohio) celebrated the completion of Phase 1 of their building addition. The project lasted 18 months and included both new construction and renovations.

• They constructed a 10-foot-wide hallway that wraps around their geodesic dome, and ends with a 22-by-24-foot classroom. The hallway’s interior wall was formerly the building’s exterior wall.
• A kitchenette was part of renovating the original structure. They opened up what used to be a bottle-necked foyer space to include the kitchenette.
• They re-worked the children’s area with a new wall (backside of kitchenette), new cabinets, and new paint.
• They re-carpeted all the hallway spaces in the building and added a few closets.
• They erected a very impressive new sign. Shoreline was previously called Oak Harbor UB church, thus the need for a new sign.

The sign was raised by volunteers. Says senior pastor Pastor Fish, “The day it went up, I proudly parked my 2000 Malibu smack dab in the middle of five full-sized pickup trucks with long trailers and heavy equipment riding on each. These country guys really have the equipment sitting around. Our digital sign shut down for the first time in six months during Sunday’s celebration. I just had to smile. We are working on getting it up and running again.”

All of these changes have taken place since September 2008. The total cost was just under $72,000.

“We scooped the first backhoe of dirt the day the stock market took its initial 500-point slide,” says Pastor Fish. “Despite this economic recession, we are so thankful to report that all of our facility improvements are fully paid for through the generosity and hard work of this people of God in Ottawa County (our own county with Ohio’s highest unemployment rate at over 18%). God has blessed us despite all of these hardships, and we celebrate the growth and his goodness to us.