No matter what you believe in, you have to admit that this is a strange story.
Whenever uncontrolled fires break out, they leave devastation in their wake.
Sadly, the community of Coal City, West Virginia really knows this to be true.
When the Freedom Ministries’ Church set ablaze in early March, the Coal City residents feared that they were going to lose it forever.
The fire started in the middle of the night. No one was present when the fire began, so it started raging and raging.
At 12:58 am, someone saw the smoke coming from the church and called the fire department.
The firefighters found that the interior of the church was an inferno.
Many of the firefighters at the scene had regularly attended this church, so putting the blaze out was of paramount importance.
But the flames were very, very strong. In fact, the building was “so hot that at one point in time, firefighters had to back out.”
But eventually, the firefighters managed to control the blaze. After many hours, the fire was put out.
The firefighters were just about able to save the structure of the building.
But what they found inside the building amazed them.
Even though the fire was intense, some things were miraculously spared from destruction. Not one of the bibles was so much as singed.
Every single cross was left standing.
And more importantly, none of the firefighters sustained any injuries while tackling the fire. Was something watching over them?
“Though odds were against us, God was not.” – Coal City Fire Department.
Paper bibles and wooden crosses should logically be one of the first things to set alight in a fire. But in this instance, they were all spared.
It seems that maybe there were dark forces at work in starting this fire, but pure forces protected the bibles and the crosses.
If there was a divine force at work, the message was clear.
Everyone suffers at some point in their lives. Random things happen that cause hardships and setbacks. But people always overcome them.
It appears that that is the message here. The building may be damaged, but faith remains. The really important things, people, teachings, articles of faith, survived to fight another day.
Freedom Ministries appears to have been rallied by this message.
The next morning, the church said “We will have to rebuild but we will be ok. We will fight the enemy and not let him hold us down.”
The community is already dealing with the impact of the fire.
On March 10th, Freedom Ministries held its first service since the fire.
They gathered as usual but in a youth center that has opened its doors to the church. The building may be charred, but the people still had a place to worship and socialize.
The Head Pastor of the church, Phillip Farrington, was amazed at the resolve of his congregation. “We’ve been so blessed by the love of the people. I mean it’s been amazing. It’s been really hard, but the love has lifted us up a lot.”
What’s even more amazing is that people across America have been showing the church support.
Pastor Farrington said that people have been sending positive messages from most of the states in America.
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