Lynn P. Clayton
LBM Editor
George Snell has tried to get his wife, Felisha, to forsake her night-owl ways,
but on October 29, 2000, he was glad she was up at 2:00 a.m.
“My daughter, Miah, and I were playing on the computer,”
Felisha Snell recalls. “I kept hearing this roar, and thought, They
must be running the machines down at the gas plant. But it kept getting
louder.
Lynn P. Clayton
LBM Editor
George Snell has tried to get his wife, Felisha, to forsake her night-owl ways,
but on October 29, 2000, he was glad she was up at 2:00 a.m.
“My daughter, Miah, and I were playing on the computer,”
Felisha Snell recalls. “I kept hearing this roar, and thought, They
must be running the machines down at the gas plant. But it kept getting
louder.
“I looked into the bedroom where George and our son were
sleeping, and everything was orange.”
It was then she realized the church house of First Baptist
Church of Evangeline, which sits only 40 or so yards from the parsonage, was
burning.
The phone line already had been melted, so Felisha Snell rushed
outside to get her cell phone from her automobile. She placed the 911 call –
“and in less than three minutes, the first volunteer fireman arrived.”
In a relatively short time, firemen and equipment from nearby
Jennings, Iota and Basile arrived, but to little avail. The entire church building
was lost to the flames, but the nearby parsonage was saved.
“We had a revival starting the next day,” says George
Snell, who had been pastor of the church only seven months when the fire struck.
“We went ahead with the revival. We met right over there, under those trees.
Later, we got some tents to meet in.”
Linda West has been a member of the church all of her life
– and tried to talk Snell out of having the revival.
“But it was the best revival weve ever had,”
she acknowledges.
The small, tight-knit community in and around Evangeline has
responded with great warmth and support since the fire, Snell and others affirm.
“On the last night of the revival, the priest from the
Catholic church right over there brought us a $1,000 check the church had collected
for us,” Snell says. “The whole community has been wonderful.”
“We had just put vinyl siding on it (the burned structure),
and it looked really good,” says Jon Newsom who is also a lifelong member
of the church. “Maybe we were too proud. Like we were taking credit for
all the good things going on.”
The churchs only building, other than the parsonage,
was built in 1937 by a congregation that originally sprang up in an oil field
– “the first oil well in Louisiana was here.” The church has
remained viable since, and now averages between 50 and 75 persons in worship.
The building was insured for $211,000, but estimates are that
replacement costs would have been about $870,000 for a building with 3,000 square
feet more than the lost building.
Enter Campers on Mission.
John and Priscilla McGee of Elm Grove Baptist Church, located
just south of Bossier City, were on the scene during the week of March 4, setting
the stage for constructing a new building.
They are part of a new ministry in which a Camper on Mission
volunteer remains at building sites for the duration of the construction. The
volunteers coordinate the construction work and building supplies.
“We estimate the appraisal price of the new building will
be about $870,000, and we estimate it will cost about $240,000, thanks to Campers
on Mission,” McGee says of the project.
The new frame-and-brick-veneer building is projected to have
8,900 square feet of space that will include educational and worship areas.
McGee says that information has been sent “all across
the country” to local groups of Campers on Mission, advertising the building
project they will undertake.
“Volunteers will be on the site, at their own expense,
working, for approximately 11 weeks,” McGee explains. “The national
rally of Campers on Mission will be in Rayne, Louisiana, this year, and we think
we will catch a lot of folks coming and going from that meeting, too.”
The church presently uses a large, rented, temporary building
that is also on the site. “It is costing $900, and most of that is paid
for by the insurance at this time,” Snell said. “We are having Sunday
School in the temporary building and in the living room of the parsonage.”
The small group of church members who gathered around coffee
and donuts last week in the temporary building all agree they are optimistic
about the churchs future.
“Although only about 300 to 400 people live in Evangeline,
some 435 children attend the elementary school that is across the street,”
Snell says. “So there are a lot of people out here” in the rural area
just northeast of Jennings.
“The fire has drawn us closer together,” Newsome
emphasizes. “It has given us a determination.”
West adds: “I get excited when I see how many young people
are coming now. I think we will do well when we get our new building.”
Summing up what seems to be the attitude of most of the churchs
members, Snell simply says, “Im enthusiastic.”