On Sunday night,
December 10, 2006, a few hours after the children’s Christmas
Eve pageant concluded, fire destroyed the 100-year-old sanctuary
of the 90-member Crane Missouri Presbyterian Church. Bill Hackley,
a 70-year church member, summed up the congregation’s
response when he said, “We’re still under God’s
plan.” Offers of help immediately flooded in, led by the
offer of free worship space at the local high school, thus repaying
a debt incurred in 1976 when the Crane congregation offered
its space for school classes displaced by fire. Bibles, hymnals,
Communion sets, office space, office machines, pastors’
robes and stoles, pianos, Sunday school materials, and generous
financial contributions came from congregations within and outside
the presbytery. Presbyterian Disaster Assistance provided trained
counselors to help sort out the decisions the church would need
to make.
Members of the Crane session soon found new opportunities
arising from the sanctuary’s destruction. Sale of their
small corner lot alleviated a traffic hazard and afforded a
neighboring funeral home additional parking. A new location,
close to the public school, will allow the church to develop
after-school outreach programs. Fellow Presbyterians continue
to extend helping hands to the Crane congregation. The ongoing
support of many of the presbytery’s congregations continues
to bless Crane Presbyterian Church, which is following God confidently
into the future. It lost its building but did not lose its spirit.
Crane Presbyterian is one of John Calvin Presbytery’s
59 churches, which have 8,615 members. |
