First Baptist Church, Hackleburg, has run the gamut of providing tornado disaster relief services to its community. From shelter to command center to animal operating room, they’ve done it all.
Now, with all the local schools destroyed after an EF-5 tornado barreled through town, the Marion Baptist Association church is taking its efforts a step further and allowing the local elementary and high school to finish the school year in the church building.
“Our facilities were about the only thing of any size left standing in Hackleburg,” said Pastor Steve Lawrence, who also serves as the high school’s volunteer band director. “It was a blessing for us. … A lot of the teachers and staff of the school are members of this church, so it made it simple.”
Since May 10, teachers and students grades K–9 have been utilizing “every square inch” of the church facility for classes, lunch, meetings and storage space. Although students in grades 10–12 are traveling down the Mark Gallups, director of missions for Marion Association, said within a couple of days he and Thomas began planning what to do next.
The front steps were all that remained at Emmanuel Baptist, but the two men agreed — “We’re going to rebuild.”
“When you see the devastation in times like these, you just hold on to what you know is true and that’s the Lord,” Gallups said. “And trust Him to help the community and help [each person] to help the community and do the best we can.”
Thomas agreed.
“After you go through something like this [you are reminded], it is only God who you can trust in anyway,” he said. “My prayer is that this (disaster) will soften hearts (in Hackleburg), and [Emmanuel Baptist] will be able to touch lives of our community more so than we ever have before.”
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