We don’t often cancel worship services, but we did on January 20th (2019) due to a bad snow storm. When we arrived at the church on Tuesday (January 22nd) for the regularly scheduled prayer meeting, we discovered a flood in the basement — a furnace valve had given out during the extended cold snap. We turned off the heat, called for after-hours service, and someone started lugging buckets while the rest of us gathered for prayer.

Before the prayer meeting was over, a stream of people had entered the building and gone downstairs, bringing with them buckets and mops and fans and wet vacs! While we continued to pray, they unplugged equipment, moved furniture and items, got rid of much of the excess water, and tore out rugs that weren’t salvageable.

How could this be? We hadn’t called anyone except the company that services our furnace.

Well, the prior week, someone from Faith Community Bible Church (FCBC) in Loudon came to our prayer meeting, and that person was there again. He quietly contacted his church’s admin, and their church put out an “All Hands On Deck” message on their Facebook page:

“Loudon Congregational Church (located at Church Street in Loudon Center) has had a pipe burst and needs immediate assistance in clean up efforts. Please bring what you have to help. People are headed there now. Let’s show our support through prayer and service.”

A whole bunch of people from FCBC showed up — more people than we typically have on a Sunday — and everyone was there to WORK, without complaint, in spite of the mess it was down there. A few people came from other churches, too — including a Pastor from Concord and his wife. Some folks even apologized that they weren’t there sooner but came as soon as they heard!

It was truly amazing. We have no idea how the clean-up would ever have happened without them.