Under bright blue skies following Hurricane Milton’s angry skies just days earlier, Florida Baptists take time to pray. Shown here are Edouard Francois, pastor, COMOR Baptist Church, Tampa; Rich Rigdon, associate director of Florida Baptist Disaster Relief; and disaster relief volunteers Liam Rigdon, First Baptist Church, Leesburg; and Carmen Mack, Stetson Baptist Church, DeLand. Recovery work is set to begin on the church soon.
TAMPA, Fla. (BP) — Hurricane Milton may have blown half the shingles off the roof causing leaks, cut off electricity to the building, and pushed standing water inside the main foyer and other rooms at COMOR Baptist Church in Tampa last week, but that did not keep the Haitian congregation from gathering for worship Sunday morning (Oct. 13).
Like many other Tampa residents and church members, Pastor Edouard Francois had to wait in line to get gas on Saturday, but that was not going to keep him from holding church services.
“I am not going to close the church,” he said. “We plan to come even during a gas shortage. We may not have a lot of people there, but whoever comes — we’re going to be praising the Lord.”
Francois has been the pastor of the church since 2013, and he said Milton is the worst hurricane he has experienced.
“It’s something I’ve never seen before,” he said. “When we got here, water was everywhere. And there were shingles from the roof all over the yard. We have quite a few leaks.”
Francois said the prep work that church members did before the storm, including using sandbags and sponge-like objects in front of the main door, protected the church from all the water coming in from the hurricane. Some water still seeped in, but they were able to get it out before Sunday.
Church members came to the church after the hurricane to help with cleanup efforts, and Francois also received some gas and other resources from the Florida Baptist Convention.
‘Serving in communities where God placed them’
Metropolitan Ministries, a local non-profit that helps the homeless, dropped off a pallet of waters — both individual bottles and gallon jugs — which members then distributed to those in need in the area. The organization provided hot meals on Sunday, which the church helped serve after the worship service.
The church also partners with this organization in providing a food pantry at the church every Wednesday and Saturday at noon, helping to meet needs of nearby residents.
According to John Voltaire, Haitian multicultural catalyst for the Florida Baptist Convention, the Haitian Pastors Fellowship met together before Hurricane Milton to pray for one another and the churches so that God might calm or redirect the storm. As he spoke with them after the storm, there were many like Francois whose church had been impacted by the hurricane, but he said all were anxious to return to serving their congregations.
“Every pastor that I talked to is eager and looking forward to continue serving in the communities where God has placed them,” Voltaire said. “They’re grateful for the immediate response and love shown by our Florida Baptist Convention.”
‘God is in control’
Francois started this Haitian church plant in nearby Ruskin in 2013 with just himself and his wife, their three children and about seven other people. They moved to their current location, not too far from Ybor City, in 2016 and today the church has about 200 members. COMOR stands for Christian Outreach Ministry of Ruskin.
As he thinks about the future, Francois said he would like to add an English-speaking service at the church. Currently he speaks French Creole to address most of the Haitian members. But a few non-Haitian members attend each week, so he tries to include English in each worship service. A separate English service is really needed to reach more people in the neighborhood, he said.
“Where we are located there are no other American churches close by,” he said. “So, it would be great to start an English-speaking service. We need to get out there and talk to people about Jesus.”
During times like these in the aftermath of a hurricane, with no power and less than optimal conditions, it can be tempting to lose hope or be discouraged. If he finds people who are feeling this way, he reminds them God is in charge.
“God is in control even in the difficult times. That’s what I tell them,” he said. “And God will help you through this.
“God didn’t say we would never have problems. He said He would always be with us. And He is.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE — This article originally appeared at flbaptist.org.)
