After a storm in early June caused roof and water damage at Austin Avenue Church of Christ, members and ministers rallied together to repair the facilities to make them usable again for worship, and ministries. Thanks in a large part, to the members who volunteered their time, this past Sunday was the second Sunday that worship services were able to be held in the auditorium since the storm.
“It was incredible,” said Roland Bowen, Missions and Adult Education Minister. “The day following [the storm] we had a lot of people out, it was completely volunteer labor to get the all of the tin off the parking lot from the roof, and all the damage, to try and get it fixed up.”
While the Family Life Center sustained most of the damage, it was not seen a complete negative, as the church leadership was already looking into renovating the building so that it could be used better for classes and ministry. The main church auditorium sustained water damage as well, with water leaking and pooling at the front of the room.
The auditorium needed to have carpet replaced, which required the moving of all the pews. Members handled the task of taking out all the pews, and moving them so that new carpet could be installed, and came back when it was finished to reinstall the pews.
During the time that repairs were being made to the auditorium, the church held worship services at the Brownwood High School Auditorium.
“It was inconvenient to worship at Brownwood High School but, what a blessing the High School gave us to allow us to worship in their auditorium,” said Tom Washburn, Pulpit Minister.
Washburn expressed his gratitude to the community for their encouragement and support during the process.
“There is no way for us to say thank you enough to Brownwood, and the community for all the support, and to everybody for really asking and caring about us, “ states Washburn. “We’re glad to be home but, at the end of the day we’ve been blessed. I have no complaints.”
The church staff wanted to thank key volunteers: Kerri Jacobs, Ann Fisher, Chris Peters, John Tiner, Scott Peters, Ron Bain, Wes Cullers and many others who volunteered their time to the renovations.
Pictured above and below is the renovated sanctuary.
More work continues on other damaged areas of the Church.
