KATHLEEN, Fla. — During Sunday service, Pastor Matt Gilmore announced to his congregation a new roof coming to the church.
It might not seem like a big deal until you see photos of the destruction left behind by October's EF-2 tornado that tore through parts of Polk County. The roof was torn off, a large tree was uprooted, the ministry center was left in shambled and the church's food bank was decimated.
Just three months later, Mt. Tabor Baptist Church in Kathleen is working on its "2020 Legacy" project. The church has a new playground in the making, it's pushing forward with plans to open a preschool and is laying the groundwork for the new ministry family life center.
It's an ambitious, half-million-dollar project, but Gilmore hopes it will be done by summer.
"We can't not do what we were called to do. The tornado wasn't a reason to stop, it was a reason to say, 'Okay, God what are you doing because something is going to happen with this?'" Gilmore said. "God took away a tree and a house so we could put in a building.
"The plans for the preschool and ministry center were already in the works before the October EF-2 tornado."
Storm damage from EF-2 tornado in Kathleen
Mt. Tabor Baptist church also runs a weekly food bank, providing fresh fruits and vegetables. The storage coolers for the food were destroyed in October, but the community of Kathleen rallied to reopen the food bank within a week.
Kathleen Middle School teachers, whose classrooms were also destroyed, raised enough money to rent a cool storage unit for one year. The church's new ministry center will also serve as a distribution center for the food bank.
The church also replaced a septic system and electrical poles damaged during repairs following the tornado.
The preschool is expected to open in the spring of 2020.
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