Damaged church still a beacon for the community
WASHINGTON, Ill. — Churchgoers file in on this Sunday morning like any other, greeting their neighbors and chatting about the events of the past week. But instead of a church, it’s a banquet hall. Instead of dressy church clothes, they’re wearing muddy boots and heavy coats. Instead of light small talk, there are hugs and tears and stories of survival.
A week after an EF-4 tornado ripped through Washington, residents took time on Sunday morning to gather for prayer and to look back.
The 11 a.m. service had just started the previous Sunday when tornado sirens started sounding. Parishioners could hear the ringing over the sounds of the church choir singing in the chapel at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church.
Pastor Tom Heren had finished the invocation when he was told to evacuate the sanctuary. He guided the 70 or so people who had showed up despite storm warnings into the church basement.
“We huddled in the preschool areas and God kept us safe,” Heren said.
When the storm passed over, the group climbed out to see an alternate reality.
None of the cars could be driven home; some barely looked like cars — windows blown out, metal twisted and several pushed into a lump in the parking lot. They still sit abandoned there a week later.
Perched on top of a hill, the view from the church showed the level of destruction the town had weathered.
“People were just in shock,” Heren said. “Devastation, tragedy, I don’t think there’s a word strong enough for what’s happened this past week.”
One member could see right away that her house was gone, ripped to the foundation. Heren tried to comfort her while also wondering about his own house nearby.
He’d soon hear from his wife that the back half of their roof had been blown off, adding him to the growing number of displaced Washington residents.
“I want to be here for the people, but it’s hard to do from Pekin,” he said of staying with his parents in a town 20 miles away.
As Heren took stock of the church’s damage, he noticed filing cabinets blown over, windows broken, but something in the sanctuary caught his eye.
“The eternal light was still hanging and it was still lit,” he said.
Exterior damage to the roof and windows forced services to be moved to a banquet hall across town, but Heren was determined to get the church lobby open quickly to serve as a base for prayer, residents in need and the influx of volunteers heading to Washington.
“I’m thankful that we were spared so that we can be a hub for the community,” Heren said. “We watched people climb out of the rubble and the first thing they saw was our church. We are a beacon of hope in this community.”
Heren led more than 100 emotional church members and volunteers in a service Sunday filled with prayer for what was lost and for an understanding of why God would put them through this.
“A lot of people place their hope in things, but our things are gone so we have to have hope in Jesus Christ,” Heren said. “The tornado took a lot from us, but it didn’t take our hope; it didn’t take our belief.”