North Texas church gave during the holidays— now it needs help

Steve Vanzant and his small congregation made sure people got food and clothing during the holidays.

Now, the church, Christian Center of Fort Worth at 4301 NE 28th St. needs help repairing the building housing its food pantry and clothing after water pipes burst, flooding a large part of the building with several inches of water on Thursday.

“It happened at around noon,” Vanzant said. “The pipes froze up,and it’s a big old mess.”

The broken water pipes caused the ceiling to collapse, and the dry wall and flooring also need to be replaced.

Vanzant said he still doesn’t know about damage to the electrical wiring and the heating and air conditioning systems which were also soaked in the flood.

Fortunately, there were minimal losses to the food as it was on tables or pallets. Vanzant hopes he can distribute food and clothing on Tuesday, the day the church provides for the community.

But, the church took a hard hit financially as the insurance deductible is $5,000 and adjusters are still assessing the damage, he said.

There are no figures yet on how much the building repairs will cost, Vanzant said.

The Christian Center of Fort Worth, where around 200 people attend Sunday services, served 1,000 meals and gave out 500 bags of groceries on Thanksgiving and provided the same number of meals and bags of food on Christmas day. And 800 children also got Christmas presents, he said.

Another important project is providing free lunch during the summer to children at West Birdville Elementary where many children are on the free and reduced lunch program. They also receive backpacks filled with school supplies

“There is a scripture that says, don’t become weary of in well-doing,” he said. “Whatever the insurance company is going to cover is going to make it better.”

Information on how to donate to the church is on their website.

This story was originally published January 5, 2018 at 6:02 PM with the headline "North Texas church gave during the holidays— now it needs help."