ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Church leaders at The Center Arena are picking up the pieces after their church caught fire Tuesday evening.
Clean-up crews along with the church’s pastors were at the church on Friday.
Both the lead pastor, Rich Vera, and Associate Pastor, Mark Dyczok said they’re not letting the destruction of their church get in the way of holding services and serving their congregation.
They said they’re eager to rebuild, but they have a long road ahead of them.
“That’s our faith and we are going to rebuild in the right time,” Vera said.
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Vera said the hardest part about the church burning is how it’s impacting their children’s activities.
“We have, you know, 75 to 100 kids that they just purchase all their instruments, their equipment,” Vera said. “They saved money for a few months selling little things and the whole thing was burned.”
The fire erupted on Tuesday evening and completely destroyed the church’s roof. Orange County Fire Rescue responded to the fire and one firefighter was injured while battling the flames.
Vera previously told News 6 that dozens of people were attending a bible study when the fire started and that the church was in the middle of renovations.
“We’re standing on Jesus,” Vera said. “He’s the rock, right? So we’re going to build because we’re on solid rock.”
The church plans to hold service as usual this Sunday, but they’re getting creative.
“The pastor will be preaching and we’ll have a worship team and we’ll have sound blasting through the parking lot,” Dyczok said. “We also have an FM transmitter. So everyone will be sitting in their cars and they can receive the service in their cars. So we’re going to have church no matter what.”
We reached out to the state fire marshal’s office earlier today to see if they have determined the cause of the fire and they say it’s still under investigation.
Both the firefighter and the church have GoFundMe’s posted to help with their recovery.
For the link to help with the firefighter’s medical expenses, click here. To help with the church’s GoFundMe, click here.
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