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DONNA — Pastor Yadira Martinez was asleep at The Lord’s Christian Center early Tuesday morning ahead of the weekly prayer service at 5 a.m.
Martinez and some members of the church regularly stay the night in the small tan building, located on South 8th Street across from Donna City Square Park.
Sheila Maldonado, a sound engineer for the church, was also there with her daughter trying to sleep in the back of the church, but the loud thunder and heavy rain prevented them from doing so.
At about 2:30 a.m., a loud crash was heard. Given the relentless thunderstorms at the time, some believed that the noise was a very close thunderclap. Others believed that someone may have broken into the church.
“My daughter had asked me if somebody was banging on the door,” Maldonado said. “What I did was I went to the cameras and I checked them.”
After not seeing anything out of the ordinary, save for some swings spinning violently in the high winds from the storm, Maldonado decided to try to use the restroom.
“We tried to open the door, and the door didn’t want to open,” Maldonado said.
She said that she woke up Martinez to ask about the locked door, but she was told that the door was unlocked.
“Automatically, I thought that they were stealing because they didn’t want to open the door,” Maldonado said.
The women ran around the building to the front entrance. It was there, in the sanctuary of the church, that the cause of the blocked door was realized. A portion of the church’s roof had collapsed.
Hearing the sound of electrical sparks from the debris on the floor, the women did not proceed any further inside the building and notified the authorities. A few hours later, the wall in the back of the church where the restrooms and the kitchen are located collapsed as well, bringing down more of the ceiling with it.
Inside the church near the altar, the name “Jesus” hung illuminated in bright neon. After the roof collapsed, Maldonado said that one of the first things she noticed upon entering the church was Jesus’s name split right down the middle.
“It was just heartbreaking,” Maldonado said, her voice quivering with emotion. “My heart just hurt. It was so sad.”
The extent of the damage to the building is not yet known, but for The Lord’s Christian Center’s congregation, the emotional damage is overwhelming.
“It just destroyed everything,” Maldonado said. “All the equipment that we had, the lighting, the chairs— everything was full of water. Everything is just ruined. It’s heartbreaking. It’s heartbreaking to see this happen to us.”
“We have worked a lot for our building,” the pastor said. “It’s a church of worship, a church where we all get together— our families, our youth, our kids. This is our place. This is our home. It’s not only a church building, it’s our home. It’s where we get together and worship God and teach the word of God. To our surprise, it hurts. We feel sad about it.”
Despite the destruction to the church, the members are remaining strong and looking forward to rebuilding their holy home. Mother Nature did little to prevent the congregation from continuing with their weekly early morning prayer service, which was held at IHOP.
“We wouldn’t blame it on God,” Maldonado said. “God always has a plan for something that happens in life. He takes us through different stuff, and he helps us through everything. Thank God that nobody was in there when it happened.”
“We pray that God will make a way,” Martinez said. “That’s our prayer.”
Anyone who would like to help The Lord’s Christian Center can make a donation to the church’s CashApp, $tlcc90. More information is available on the church’s Facebook page, or by calling (956) 461-0476.
