God sent a snowstorm, and in the process, He saved a Kentucky church building. That is what Kenny Rager, pastor of 12 Stones Baptist Church in Elizabethtown, recently concluded.
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The church was meeting on Saturday (Jan. 24) rather than Sunday because of the impending snow forecast, and during that morning service a piece of heating equipment broke.
While Rager was preaching, he noticed the security team was beginning to stir. “I could tell something was going on, but I kept on preaching.” Then black smoke began coming out of the blower. “Our safety and security team had a prearranged plan for situations like this — they identified the source of the smoke and got it out quickly,” Rager said.
‘Hand of God’
As he reflects on what could have resulted in a fire, he testifies to the providence of God in multiple ways.
“Here’s where we see the hand of God — that would have happened whether we were in the building or not. We did not adjust the thermostat controls that day. I do not know what would have happened if we had not gathered to worship when we did. It is possible that it could have sent everything up in a blaze. We can only say, ‘Thank you, Jesus!’ It was truly a miracle we met that day.”
Not only did the safety and security volunteers spring into action, but also people involved in church maintenance — and there was a master electrician in the building. “We had a group of people to put it out because they were at church.”
There are various “ifs” that Rager sees in that situation.
“If I hadn’t called Mark Bishop (pastor of GracePointe Baptist Church in Louisville), we wouldn’t have been meeting on Saturday,” Rager said, noting that Bishop gave him the idea of rescheduling because of the weather forecast. “If God hadn’t used Mark, I don’t know what might have happened. But God took care of it — there is no other way around it.”
That incident reenforces Rager’s conviction that “God has His hand on our church. I want to pray that we can continue to reach Hardin County and beyond with the gospel. We want to be a church that connects people to Jesus to bring hope to our world.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Chip Hutcheson and originally published by Kentucky Today.
