Churches band together after damage from recent hurricanes

When the hell of Hurricanes Helene and Milton struck Madeira Beach, one church took up their name literally by calling on a higher power to help them make it through.

Since the storms in September and October, the congregation from Engaging Heaven Church has been meeting at Faith Community Church in Seminole, but their plan is to be back in their Madeira Beach location in February.

Since the storms in September and October, the congregation from Engaging Heaven Church has been meeting at Faith Community Church in Seminole.

When Helene hit, Engaging Heaven Church had water and sand inside their church as high as the sinks in the bathrooms (almost three feet).

"We always prepare, we board up, we had all those things going on, in fact, when we went to the town they were giving away sand bags," recalled Pastor James Levesque, "And I'll never forget when they were handing us the sandbags, they said, 'What's your address, oh that church never floods, you'll never have an issue, for 100 years there's never been a problem,' but as you can see it was pretty devastating."

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The church opened on Easter of 2021, and Levesque and his congregation have been very involved in the beach community, helping neighboring businesses and taking care of local residents. But the hurricane brought a whole new level of hopelessness.

"The sanctuary floor looked like the bottom of the ocean, it was just mud. You could almost see the ripple like from the bottom of the ocean," he shared, "And then it was by the end of the next week Milton came and that was like the wind, and that's where we got a lot of the roof damage and the roof was pulled up and stuff like that. It was really a wild one-two punch."

Since the storms in September and October, the congregation from Engaging Heaven Church has been meeting at Faith Community Church in Seminole.

But, in adversity and trouble, the church saw their congregation come together for the community.

"After the storm, we ended up getting 30 pallets in here," he said, "We opened those doors and just fed the community, water and food and just did everything we could for the community here."

"That storm is not going to define us, and we will rebuild, and this beach is going to be stronger than ever," said Levesque.

Since the storms in September and October, the congregation from Engaging Heaven Church has been meeting at Faith Community Church in Seminole.

It's a statement of faith that the source of the church is stronger than the worst that the hurricanes could do to their morale.

You can follow along with the journey back for Engaging Heaven Church on Facebook.

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