In July this year, massive storms have ruthlessly swept across the southern part of China, among which Xianyang in Hubei Province was severely affected. So far, the local Christian Council in Jiayu county has been ready to kick off its major crisis relief effort to rescue the devastated situation in Xianyang.
Among four most severely devastated churches in Jiayu, Luxi Gospel Church and Yuqiusan Chapel will soon to be torn down and rebuilt from scratch. Jiexing Church in Paizhouwan cannot avoid being put down, either due to its severe damage. As for the Paizhouwan Gospel Church, which has been trapping water of very deep depth, surprisingly manages to remain relatively intact despite a light disturbance to its building beams. Thus, the church will only go through a minor repair work on its roof and foundation.
The head of Jiayu Christian Association, Pastor Lu Qichang once shares in an interview with Gospel Times, that three out of these four churches will be torn down and rebuilt though all four church buildings did not fall down entirely during the storm. The rebuilding plan has already been drafted. As such, Pastor Lu hopes that the repair work will be completed by the end of this year.
Pastor Lu says that Luxi Gospel Church, due to its broken building beams and torn out clay tiles, will need to be rebuilt as well. He also mentions that the daughter of one of the church members there has drafted a new layout map for the church, of which the design will help the building cope better with storm and flood in the future.
As Luxi Town is evolving to be more modernized, Pastor Lu believes that the new church should also tap on this societal trend by expanding its scale of operation. "Sanyi Chapel in Yuqiu shall also be rebuilt," said Pastor Lu," As this church building is so torn out that gaps on the walls can be clearly seen. The building beams have also been severely damped and destroyed by the rain over the years. As this Sanyi Chapel was built in the 90th century, the scarcity of resources at that time had indeed contributed to the poor structure of the church at our time.":
Jiexing Chapel in Paizhouwan is situated besides a new chapel. The old chapel has been severely damaged. Pastor Lu says that this old chapel was initially designated as the venue for Sunday school. However, upon the occurrence of the natural disaster, the chapel is so shaken that it is not long safe for children to be sheltered under. Hence, the Christian association in the county has decide to put down the entire chapel in order to build a brand new one for children's Sunday school.
This natural disaster has also lead to water being trapped within the church buildings. As such, the association has decided to lay higher foundation for the church buildings as part of their rebuilding plan. The only chapel that is not involved in the rebuilding plan is Paizhouwan Gospel Church. Though Pastor Lu expresses strong wish in rebuilding this chapel along with the rest, lack of funding and financially poor situation have put this wish on hold.
So far the rebuilding work has not started and church goers have not been able to enter the church building for Sunday service yet. Pastor Lu shares that all church members are anxious and worried about this situation as several people even feel "homeless" right now. He once said that some brothers and sisters have been persistent in prayer for their churches to be rebuilt soon. One of the church members involving in the rebuilding work even have been faithfully looking around for funding and collecting various necessary paper work for the rebuilding work to kick off. Though local believers are very generous in their giving, the storm has indeed struck them individually as well, thus leaving little room for their fund-raising effort to be impactful.
Jiayu county is situated near the Yangtze River. Upon the hit of the flood, the speed of water flowing to the ground has become even slower, thus making the flooding situation even worse.When Pastor Lu talks about the financial loss and current struggles that local people are facing, he mentions that all the fresh produce such as fish, prawns, crab and lotuses were swept away due to the disaster, leading to loss of produce from the land as wide as 1,900 acres. Last but not the least, Pastor Lu mentions that Jiayu Christian Association is currently involved in establishing a ministry catered to children who are poor both financially and deprived from the care of their parents. Pastor Lu said, " I really wish to do something for God himself. But the simultaneous challenges of running this ministry for children and rebuilding disaster-striking churches have made me powerless to do focus on both areas at the same time."
