wfn.org | United Methodist church, community flooded in Texas

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Oct. 27, 1998	Contact: Joretta Purdue*(202)546-8722*Washington
{626}

NOTE: This story may be used as a sidebar to UMNS #625. 

By Douglas Cannon*

The 23 members of Brothers Chapel United Methodist Church in Cuero,
Texas, couldn't worship in their waterlogged building on Oct. 25
following record floods.

Instead, Pastor J.C. Williams went door to door in the neighborhood
around the century-old worship center, the only United Methodist church
flooded in the Southwest Texas Annual (regional) Conference. Almost nine
feet of water from the Guadalupe River rolled through the church and
neighborhood Oct. 20-22.

"We met with people from all denominations," Williams said. "We gave
them the word of God. We encouraged them that out of all this there
would be some good." 

Williams also distributed cleanup supplies he had purchased and
information from the United Methodist Committee on Relief about steps to
obtain disaster aid.

"People were amazed," he said. "They told me I was the only preacher in
that area offering any hope about where they could get aid."

Flooding affected every family in the predominantly black Brothers
Chapel congregation, Williams said. All but one had their possessions
wiped out, he said. However, if the flood had occurred at night, people
could have been killed, he added. 

# # #

*Cannon, communicator for the Southwest Texas Annual Conference and
editor of the Southwest Texas United Methodist Reporter, accompanied
Bishop Raymond H. Owen on two assessment trips into areas where the
floodwaters had just receded.

United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
Releases and photos also available at
http://www.umc.org/umns/