North Texas

Ellis County Church Opens Doors to Damaged Neighbor Church

A week after the deadly December tornadoes hit North Texas life is slowly getting back to normal.

But the places hardest hit are having to improvise in the wake of the storm, including church services in Ellis County.

At Grace Church of Ovilla, parishioners have spent the week of serving the community.

The church's sign out front hints at their efforts, offering free coffee and meals to volunteers and storm victims.

"This week alone we've fed over 500 people," said Justin Jackson, senior pastor at the church.

The volume of donations inside the Sunday school classroom speaks even louder. It's packed with clothes, diapers, shoes, toys and school uniforms.

"To run out of space because you're holding blankets for people who are cold is a good problem to have," Jackson said.

Grace Church suffered no damage in the EF3 tornado, but its neighbor of less than a mile away wasn't so lucky.

"It was pretty clear driving down the road that they weren't going to be able to use their building anymore it was completely demolished," Jackson said.

"Looks like it may be a knock down and a rebuild," said Pastor Ron Adams of Ovilla Road Church of the Nazarene.

Adams' church was so damaged, it'll likely be uninhabitable until 2017 he said on Sunday. So he and his parishioners had to find somewhere new to worship in the meantime.

"Grace Church," Adams said. "What better place than to receive grace from?"

And so at 10:30 on Sunday not one, but two churches gathered together in the same place. As the community that's dealing with damage together is also praying together, no matter their church affiliation.

"It's incredible, times like this you see the denominational lines go down and incredible things happen when that happens," Adams said.

"We know that we can honor God best by opening up our building to them and offer them a warm place to worship," Jackson said.

The tornado may have torn the Church of the Nazarene into debris, but it's brought the communities of Ovilla, Glenn Heights and Red Oak together.

"Even in the midst of debris, there's a purpose in the debris," Jackson said.

"God is good," Adams said.

Adams says engineers are still assessing their church, but he does expect to hear bad news. However he and his parishioners are staying positive and are focused on rebuilding.

In the meantime, Grace Church says it'll keep its doors open for as long as they need.

At Grace Church of Ovilla, parishioners have spent the week of serving the community, including members of a neighboring church left destroyed by an EF3 tornado.
Contact Us