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Church-goers gather at the newly finished Christ Community Church in El Centro on Sunday. (PHOTO COURTESY OF CHRIST COMMUNITY CHURCH / February 25, 2013) |
Christ Community Church’s congregation is home again.
The church held its first service Sunday in its rebuilt sanctuary nearly three years after it was irreparably damaged.
“It feels fantastic,” El Centro resident Tori Cook said. “I came to school here. It feels like I’m reuniting.”
Indeed, church officials likened the 34 months that the congregation was without a home to the 40 years Moses and his followers wandered the wilderness.
A magnitude-7.2 earthquake struck April 4, 2010, sometime after the Easter Sunday service had let out. The church’s original structure, built in 1956, did not withstand the shaking. Although the damage was not apparent from the outside, a step inside was all it took to see what nature wrought. Daylight shone through a deep crack in one of the walls.
City of El Centro officials condemned the structure, and the congregation, numbering more than 1,000, had to find a location large enough to accommodate it. As a result, the Jimmie Cannon Performing Arts Theater at Southwest High School was rented out.
“We’d have to load everything up — a mobile sound system, chairs, nurseries, carpets, toys,” Kari Freeman said. “I feel like I can breathe again.”
Christ Community Church’s first service in its newly rebuilt home was a celebration of triumph over adversity and a testament to what can be accomplished with God’s help, church officials said.
To that end, officials recognized the many contractors that worked on the project with plaques.
“The joy of the Lord is overflowing,” Senior Pastor Walter Colace said. “We have been working almost around the clock. Occupancy permits did not get signed until 5 p.m. Friday.”
The destruction of the old building afforded Colace and his congregation the opportunity to build a sanctuary that was better suited for their needs.
In place of the block and stained-glass building is a modern steel structure with a state-of-the-art sound system. And, while Colace was hoping to have 1,189 seats — one for each chapter in the Bible — the congregation had to settle for 1,145 seats.
“I pray that this place continues to be a lighthouse in a world that gets continually darker,” Colace said, leading the congregation through a prayer.
Staff Writer Antoine Abou-Diwan can be reached at 760-337-3454 or aabou-diwan@ivpressonline.com
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