Hurricane Ike impacts WELS congregations
Filed Under: Hurricane, ike, Texas
WELS congregations throughout metropolitan Houston are cleaning up after Hurricane Ike roared through the area Saturday. While contact has not been made with every pastor in the region, there are no reports that any church buildings or parsonages suffered significant structural damage. Some have reported minor to moderate flooding.
Lord of Life in Friendswood, southeast of Houston, is the closest congregation to Galveston, the community most damaged by the hurricane. Rev. Marc VonDeylen, his wife, Monique, and their four children still living at home evacuated to relatives in the area. They returned home Monday. Monique reports they are without power, but that the church and the parsonage appear to have fared well. "We were just thrilled to get back home," she says. "It's definitely not just luck that the church and house are okay."
Two Lord of Life families live in Galveston. They had safely evacuated, but the fate of their homes is not known.
Rev. Ronald Semro was heading back on Monday to check on the parsonage and church building at Christ Our Savior in Angleton. South of Houston and about 20 miles from the coast, it is the next closest WELS congregation to the areas most heavily damaged by Hurricane Ike. Preliminary reports from members in the area indicate both the parsonage and church building escaped without major structural damage.
Semro says the area is still without power and sewer services, and that he has no idea when residents will be allowed back in permanently. He and his wife, Donna, are staying with his son, Rev. Jonathan Semro at Prince of Peace in northwest Houston. "The Lord has taken good care of us," says Semro. "We're just so thankful."
All of the pastors contacted say communications with individual members is difficult because phone service—both cell and landline—has been sporadic and so they are still assessing the hurricane's impact on their congregations as a whole.
For future updates about congregations in Houston and their relief needs, check: www.welsrelief.net
