Posted on 05/03/2007 4:08:41 PM PDT by siunevada
SAN BERNARDINO - A man or woman of God sees hope amid ruin. In Pastor Lenton Lenoir's case, he has to, because his luck has been bad enough to bury lesser men.
On the evening of April 27, tragic deja vu swept over Lenoir when an associate pastor at Holy Land Church of God in Christ on G Street discovered a shocking scene and alerted him with the news.
The 750-capacity worship hall's roof collapsed some time between April 25 and 27, burying everything beneath a spectacle of rubble. The news was doubly stunning to the 76-year-old Lenoir.
It was the second time this happened to his church.
The worship hall that had previously served the congregation at 955 W. Seventh St. for nearly 30 years until 1990 also was buried when its roof caved in.
But the senior pastor's first thoughts were of his good fortune.
"I felt thankful," Lenoir said upon seeing the beautiful pews and engraved-wood church benches buried and battered. "We are so blessed it happened when no one was in there."
The roof crashed straight down, leaving the walls undisturbed and the devastation not visible from the outside. When Lenoir opened the doors entering the hall, debris spilled outward.
The mystery collapse - Lenoir said there had recently been a minor drainage problem but doubted it played a role - has deprived the congregation of one of its greatest assets: the hall. Just two Sundays ago, Lenoir said, it brimmed with more than 700 of the Pentecostal church's members, who sang, danced and worshipped.
The church is one of the oldest predominately African-American congregations in the city, founded in the mid-1960s by Lenoir and his wife after he moved from Mississippi, then in the midst of the civil-rights struggle.
The church is no stranger to woe.
In 2002, a band of taggers defaced the church with Satanic references and anti-religious slurs.
In 1990, the similar fate that befell the church's old Seventh Street building was a total loss that ended a run of more than 20 years there.
Lenoir said he hopes the ending is different this time.
"Our insurance didn't cover that one. I don't remember exactly why," Lenoir said. "We will put in a claim for the roof and see what happens, but I'm not getting my hopes up."
Consider it a sign
Re-evaluate your theology?
Or make sure the building inspector isn't getting a kickback from your low-bid contractor.
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