It’s no secret that Bethabara Baptist Church, Northport, has had an active baptistry in the past couple of years. On Kevin Morrison’s first Sunday as pastor in 2017 someone came to Christ — and that kept happening every Sunday for 17 straight weeks.
“It’s been good. We’ve been growing and had more salvations and baptisms,” he said. “We’re up to 41 total since we’ve been here. God’s been good to us.”
But in recent weeks the baptistry got a little too excited, Morrison said. Something happened one day and it filled with water and overflowed, flooding the sanctuary and the basement below.
“The cleanup crew and the insurance company estimated that it was probably running for three days,” he said. “There were three inches of water in our sanctuary.”
Closer together
In the past few weeks the congregation has had to shuffle around, meeting in different parts of the building that weren’t affected as much.
But Morrison said he’s amazed — it’s brought them closer together and their crowds are even bigger than normal.
‘Pieces coming together’
“I looked at the flood as a bad thing, but God has made it a good thing,” he said, noting the rebuild process is going smoothly too, thanks to God’s provision. “Everything is like a puzzle and all the pieces are coming together. What gets me the most is that God’s using the church and no matter what comes our way, it seems like we’ve overcome it.”
Gary Bonner, associational missionary/director of missions for Sipsey Baptist Association, said it’s incredible to watch how the church is thriving even — or especially — in the midst of crisis.
In times like these, “people’s faithfulness touches other people’s lives and makes a difference,” he said. (Grace Thornton)
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