Howard Beach Assembly of God Pastor Stephen Roser hugs one of his congregants at the church’s rededication ceremony in June. File Photo
“I thought we were done.”
Pastor Stephen Roser vividly remembers thinking these words when he saw what Hurricane Sandy had done to his church, the Howard Beach Assembly of God, the morning after the storm had poured angry water into the neighborhood, leaving his sanctuary completely destroyed – rendering its pews and rugs unusable, knocking the pulpit over, soaking Bibles until ink bled from the pages.
“All that was left was the shell of the building” Roser said. “The site of the devastation filled me with dread.”
In those hours immediately following one of the worst storms to touch down in New York City, Roser had no idea what the future would bring – and he feared there would be no way to get his building up and running again. So many of his congregants too had lost everything; he and his wife, Sharon, were, like many throughout the community, living with no electricity, no heat and no car; and the amount of money needed to fix the church was a staggering price tag that seemed almost insurmountable.
Still, there were glimpses of hope – work teams from throughout the country started pouring in. A group from Brooklyn spent hours on demolition; another team of people trekked about 950 miles from Warm Springs, Georgia to help get the church back on its feet.
“The response was so great that I had to say no to people who wanted to come,” Roser said.
And, despite the water and the fuel shortage and the lack of heat, the congregants, Roser learned, would not be kept from their church. The first Sunday after the hurricane, the pastor did not expect many to be able to come to the service – after all, they were dealing with piecing their own lives back together and Sandy ripped apart any sense of normalcy.
But, they came. And sat on rusty folding chairs. And said how good it was to be there.
“That first Sunday morning, the church was packed,” Roser said. “We were worshipping in a sanctuary that was a wreck, but the spirit was still there.”
Soon, the donations started to arrive – from Arizona, from Pennsylvania, from faces no one in Howard Beach had ever seen. Ultimately, the church received about $92,000 in donations.
“My best word for it would be a miracle,” Roser said. “Now, the church is totally rebuilt, and we were able to build things we couldn’t afford before the storm.”
The church’s floors and walls, rows of pews, an altar, and the pulpit were all replaced. The basement was renovated, and there is a new audio system – as well as an entire collection of new instruments.
All this renovation work and donations and new items for the church – they are representative of something far greater, Roser said: A sense of community and the role of faith in healing – and in life.
“There’s a wonderful form of bonding that happens in any crisis – and there are anniversaries of that victory,” Roser said. “We ought to continue these community celebrations that create a sense of bonding among people.”
With the first anniversary of Sandy, Roser said he hopes people will remember not only that sense of community that was fostered – but continue to live by the lessons learned during the storm.
“Don’t forget your priorities,” he said. “The crisis forced you to prioritize; do not forget what you learned – the love of family and friends, our relationship with God. Let’s not regress to materialism.”
By Anna Gustafson
