I crawled in bed at 8 p.m. thinking, “This is gonna be a great night’s sleep!” At 9 p.m. Jeff Harmon called from the church saying, “A water pipe broke and there’s about 5,000 gallons of water that has poured into the church!” That pretty much woke me up! I ran to the church and I’ve gotta tell you… it was awesome! There were about 75 people there with mops, shop vacs, brooms, and everything else imaginable pushing water around! The fire department was there, people from our Thursdays service were there, people from out Saturday service were there, and people from both Sunday services were there! It was Northgate at her best! I watched as young and old stood side by side laughing and cleaning up the mess! I was proud to be on the Northgate team tonight!
Some pictures now for your viewing pleasure…
our church on a typical Batavia day!
This is the main auditorium… minus chairs because the water at one point was almost six inches deep in certain parts of the room. The Worship Team was there practicing when the pipe broke and moved everything off the stage so it wouldn’t get wet. They also hung around to move the chairs around so that the cleaning could begin! Thanks guys!
The picture on the far right is a shot of the ceiling tiles in… the ceiling. You can see the water damage. Nice huh?
This is the damage in the back hall. The water just poured through this part of the ceiling. One estimate is that it was pouring out at app. 120 gallons per minute!
These are pictures of the rooms most significantly affected by the water on the Kids wing.
And this is the culprit! A broken pipe (on the left) and a chunk of ice (on the right). The water froze in the pipe which caused it to burst and now you know the rest of the story.
In my opinion this crisis brought out the best in Northgate! I saw so many people pour into… ah, bad metaphor in this case huh? OK, I saw so many people come to the rescue! We ordered pizza and pop… and somehow there were cookies, and we worked like crazy people!
I love what adversity does to a team! Thanks to everyone of you who put in long hours tonight! I love you!
Filed under: Northgate News
Too bad about the damage, but what an awesome picture of the Body of Christ! Even in adversity we can find a spirtual lesson to encourage us!
I felt special working side by side with the dedicated and fun loving people that were at the little-flood last night at Norhgate. It was great to see how Christians can suddenly run to the call whenever needed and what is really great about this is I have seen this happen not just with church situations but when other fellow christians need help also what a wonderful privilage to be a part of such a great body of Christ
I was beginning to wonder if services this weekend would have to be cancelled. However, when I stopped in today (Wed), it amazed me to find how much things had been cleaned up! Awesome job clean up crew! Although I wsan’t there, this made me realize something profound….that its not just me who considers Northgate “mine”. We all take ownership. We all love her and will do anything to keep her blemish free. Another thing, isn’t it amazing what Satan will attempt to do to bring a good thing down?!
WOW! What a disaster and an odd blessing! Glad people were there when it happened! Otherwise, it could’ve been much worse. Is there any “permanent” damage and do we have some professionals coming in to help? Looks like quite a job!
This doesn’t sound like something that should happen at such a new building. I hope our insurance covers all the necessary repairs!!
This just cements the fact we have an amazing church, as in the people not the building (not that we don’t have a beautiful building too)!! Way to go church!!!
Melissa,
I think you’re right on here with two things:
1) There are a LOT of great people at our church who
call her home! It was awesome to watch people
care so much about their church!
2) I am convinced that this episode will not be the last.
As we are praying that God will bring hundreds of
new people to Himself through the ministry of our
church this year we can expect our Enemy to ramp
up his warfare against us. We must pray hard and
move out to lead people to Jesus and build them up
in that relationship!
Thanks for interacting with the blog!
Peace!
Paul
Maureen,
The damageable is repairable. No structural damage occurred. We do have professional cleaners here, and it is quite a job!
You hit it right on the head… we have an unbelievable church! From the Thursdays congregation to the Saturday and Sunday congregations…we rock!
I loved watching “The Church” come together and overcome “The Flood”!
Peace!
Paul
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[...] recently had a water line break in the church and people were able to read about it and see it before the weekend! I share things (e.g. upcoming sermon series) and ask for things (e.g. stories [...]
[...] recently had a water line break in the church and people were able to read about it and see it before the weekend! I share things (e.g. upcoming sermon series) and ask for things (e.g. stories [...]