Born again

On April 6, 2019 an F-0 tornado with winds up to 85 mph ripped through San Gabriel.

The funnel appeared in the southwest and went on a northwest tear destroying two houses and a parsonage for the Baptist church in the town, moved a silo a few yards leaving part of it wrapped around a telephone pole and took all the shingles off the roof of the San Gabriel Christian Church. It also took a historical marker and wedged it straight into the side of the church.

“It was Sunday morning when we saw it,” Billy Bob Cox, the church pastor, said, recalling the day after the storm hit. “Around 8:30 in the morning, they called me and said, ‘I don’t think we are going to meet today.’ ”

When Cox got to the church grounds he was shocked at what he saw.

“It looked like a bomb had gone off in here,” he said. “We got three and a half inches of rain in here. Most all of the old tile had fallen off. We had carpet on the floor. It was just demolished.”

Seeing his church in the condition it was in after the storm, started a grieving process that was short-lived as the pastor and the flock knew there was work to be done, he said.

“We started cleaning up and praying. Instead of having church that morning, all these people came over and went to work to eliminate as much damage as possible,” he said.

The cleaning and remodeling has taken almost two years.

The old carpets were removed from the floors in the sanctuary, old wallpaper and cheesecloth were removed from the walls and the ceiling tiles were not replaced. The roof shingles were replaced.

“It took two months to get it dried out,” Cox said.

“It took another four months to decide what we wanted to do.

They decided to leave the exposed ship-lap-style floor, walls and ceiling natural, he said.

Church member Bob Heine led the cleanup team and he praised the work of contractor Ray Quisenberry who refinished all the pews in the church and did some building and remodeling.

“Mr. Quisenberry did a wonderful job. He built the staircase up to the bell tower,” Heine said. “He is a real 100 percent craftsman. He took his time to do it right. He was not satisfied until it was perfect.”

Now the church is ready to show off all the work that has gone into returning the building to even better condition than it was before the storm.

March 28 there will be a rededication service at the church at 184 CR 421 in San Gabriel.

The day will start with the regular morning praise and worship service at 11 a.m. Then there will be a lunch served after the service.

The rededication program starts at 2 p.m. and there will be a gospel concert by the Texans.

Let the church know if you want to attend the meal so that they will know how many to prepare for, so call 512-373-0954 for information about the day’s activities.

The deadline to RSVP for the meal is Sunday morning.