THE PEOPLE ARE THE CHURCH
On June 9th, 1999 after the Wednesday night chour practice ended early, at aproximatly 9:04p.m. fire gutted the sactuary of the First Baptist Church of Lafayette,La. Members watch in horror to see there church sactuary for almost 50 years go up in smoke in a matter of minutes. Some of the members before the fire trucks came we reported to be fighting the fire with everything they could, but once they realized that it was to late they had no choice but to abandon the effort of saving the old building. Fire trucks arrived at about 10 minutes after the call trying to contain the flames from jumping to the sunday school buildings. At about 11:00pm. the fire was contain. During the fire the Rev. Sanders was seen rounding his flock and comforting those in grief. In the end the Rev. Sanders was quoted as saying "The people are the Church,". He also promise that the old church will be replaced in 2 years with a new and even bigger church.
THE FIVE OMENS
There were two omens that occured before fire had even started. 1) The Square II Gym (the building that we now hold church services), never had airconditioning until Wednesday, the day of the fire. 2) On Wednesday nights between 7p.m. and 9p.m. choir practice is held in the Sactuary choir room, located behind the sactuary, for some reason the choir practice ended earlier than usual. Most likly because it was so hot in that room that the AC units would be on at full blast but it still was so hot that they eventually left early...
The other three omens occured after the fire the next day. 1) As Rev. Sanders was walking down the street with a local newspaper reporter, they came apon a burnt piece of paper that was from a Hymn book. On one side there was a song that the members of the church often sang to "The way of the Cross Leads Home," and on the back a song that Rev. Sanders holds dear to his heart, "Precious Lord, Lead me Home," it is very personal to him because this is the song he sang on the way home from the hospital after his first wife past away. Song located at the bottom of this article 2) As the sactuary continued to burn, fire began to reach as high as the top of the steeple. Firefighters began to get concern that the steeple would fall at any moment into the street, but it didn't. The steeple is being repaired and will be incorperated to the new sactuary. 3) Later that day firefighters allowed
Rev. Sanders & youth minster Mikey Bailey to enter the sactuary. To there suprize everything was completly gutted, piano, organ, everything including most church records were gone. As they continued to explore the church they found the podeum in good condition, with the paint melted off it still standed. Which was a really great omen because everything around the podeum was gone. Rev.Sander still uses it for his sermon and has pledge not to repaint it when the new sactuary is built.
"Precious Lord, Lead me Home"
1) Pre-cious Lord, take my hand, Lead me on, help me stand- I
am tired, Iam weak, I am worn; Thro' the storm, thro' the night,
Lead me on to the light- Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me
home.
2 When my way grows drear, Pre-cious Lord, linger near- When
my life is al- most gone; Hear my cry, hear my call, Hold my hand
lest I fall- Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home.