Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 08:22:15 -0500 From: Darrell Todd Maurina Reply-To: Darrell128@aol.com Organization: Christian Renewal/United Reformed News Service Subject: NR 99002: Snow Scuttles Services at All Midwestern URC/ARC Churches NR #1999-002: Snow Scuttles Services at All Midwestern URC and ARC Churches, But No Property Damage or Serious Injuries The Midwest is well-known for snow and bad winter weather, but midwestern Dutch Reformed church members are usually dogged in getting to church regardless of the cold and ice. That didn't happen this January, when the Midwest was hit by the worst snowfall in over thirty years. Several car pileups in Michigan involving fifty or more cars made the national news, while some communities were unable to see the news of the storm or even heat their homes due to electric and telephone outages. Weather forced the closure of every Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan congregation of the United Reformed Churches and Alliance of Reformed Churches on January 3, and affected churches as far east as New Jersey and New England. Only Community Reformed Bible Church of Highland, Indiana, was able to hold evening services that day. Some churches were still unable to hold services a week later, and Christian schools in some rural areas were still closed after two weeks due to poor road conditions. While bad weather hit other parts of the midwest as well, the outlying URC congregations in Idaho, Colorado, and Missouri said they had no problems due to weather. NR #1999-002: For Immediate Release: Snow Scuttles Services at All Midwestern URC and ARC Churches, But No Property Damage or Serious Injuries by Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer United Reformed News Service (January 18, 1999) URNS - The Midwest is well-known for snow and bad winter weather, but midwestern Dutch Reformed church members are usually dogged in getting to church regardless of the cold and ice. That didn't happen this January, when the Midwest was hit by the worst snowfall in over thirty years. Several car pileups in Michigan involving fifty or more cars made the national news, while some communities were unable to see the news of the storm or even heat their homes due to electric and telephone outages. Urban areas such as Chicago and Detroit were hit the worst, closing Detroit schools for weeks on end and forcing a partial shutdown of Chicago's O'Hare International Airport which stranded thousands of passengers and backed up other flights throughout the region. However, the smaller cities and towns didn't fare much better: weather forced the closure of every Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan congregation of the United Reformed Churches and Alliance of Reformed Churches on January 3. Only Community Reformed Bible Church of Highland, Indiana, was able to hold evening services that day. Some churches were still unable to hold services a week later, and Christian schools in some rural areas were still closed after two weeks due to poor road conditions. While bad weather hit other parts of the midwest as well, the outlying URC congregations in Idaho, Colorado, and Missouri said they had no problems due to weather. "We did have to cancel our services, basically we couldn't get into our parking lot, and we had to postpone installation of our elders and deacons for a week," said URC stated clerk Rev. Jerome Julien, pastor of Lynwood URC in the south suburbs of Chicago. Julien's experience was typical of other churches - even for congregations that had no problem getting the driveway plowed. "Quite a few of our members do have snowplowing businesses and it's been terrible; they'll plow for eighteen or twenty hours per day. It's just awful, but they've got to go anyway or customers call in and complain," said Rev. Joel Vander Kooi of Walker URC in suburban Grand Rapids. "My heart goes out to people for whom this is a hardship; one of my deacons said it took him seventy minutes to get to Walker from the south end of Grand Rapids because traffic was just crawling on the expressways." The snow wasn't the end of problems: from Michigan east to New England, the snow was followed by freezing rain that iced up roads and snapped power lines - and then by flooding which closed roads and made conditions even worse. "What I'm dreading is the melting that will hit us at the end of this week," said Vander Kooi. While much of the east coast was hard-hit by flooding and ice, most eastern URC and ARC congregations had fewer problems. Preakness CRC of Wayne, New Jersey, reported no problems, but the other two New Jersey URC had service disruptions: Pompton Plains Reformed Bible Church reported that less than a third of their membership was able to make it to church on January 3 and Newton URC canceled morning services that day. Champlain Valley URC in Ferrisburg, Vermont, said some midweek events were canceled, and Messiah's Congregation of Brooklyn said the weather hadn't affected their plans. That wasn't the case farther north. "During this storm we've gotten eight or nine inches of snow, now we're getting five hours of freezing rain," said Rev. Ken Sanders of Westmoreland Reformed Bible Church in New Hampshire, an ARC member congregation. "Several of the roads are closed, the parsonage where we live is located on a dirt hill road off the main road, and my son was ice-skating on the road for about 2 hours. We were stranded until the sander came out about two hours ago." Like the midwestern churches, Westmoreland had to cancel worship services on January 3. Services were held the next week, but the church was still having trouble. "We have a lot of homes in New England with slate roofs so a number of us have to use snow rakes to take the snow off our roof, or we have ice dams build up where water will back up through the roof slates and damage the interior of the roofs," said Sanders. "I also had the ax up on the roof chipping off the ice dam. Our thermometer said minus 5 degrees, and some folks from our church said it was up to minus 12 degrees." Despite the weather, none of the URC congregations suffered any damage to their church buildings or serious accidents, injuries, or property damage among the membership. Two ARC congregations weren't so fortunate. One member of Immanuel Fellowship Church of Kalamazoo was involved in an accident, and the Westmoreland church had serious damage to one member's home. "We have piles of four or five feet on the snow near the roofs, but we're getting a lot of snow now," said Sanders. "We have members about forty miles north who have water tanks in their roof that burst because of ice, they had thirty gallons of water pour into their living room. We were going to go up to them and try to help, but we couldn't make it due to the glare ice." Sanders said bad weather wasn't uncommon in northern New England and his church tries to help its members and neighbors during storms. "We are filling up our bathtubs with water because our power typically goes out a couple of times per winter, and last year the power was out for about 4 days," said Sanders. "We have a doctor who goes around to the homes that have children and are sick; it's just wonderful when we have a doctor who will still make house calls when we can't get to his office." Iowa churches are also used to bad weather, but the snow closed only one Iowa church: Covenant Reformed Church of Wellsburg, Iowa, an ARC member congregation in eastern Iowa. "We had a pretty good amount of snow, but nothing unusual for what we get out here," said Rev. Timothy Perkins of Don URC. "We're pretty well equipped to handle most snow emergencies, and we've got about a foot on the ground." Redeemer URC of Orange City, Iowa, and Hills URC in Minnesota had no cancellations, but Cornerstone URC of Sanborn, Iowa, took precautionary steps on January 3. "We moved evening services one Sunday to afternoon just in case the wind would pick up, so people coming from out of the countryside wouldn't have to deal with snow-filled roads," said Rev. Harry Zekveld of Sanborn. "We really were blessed compared to what is going on out there." Cross-References to Related Articles: [No related articles on file] Contact List: Rev. Keith Davis, Pastor, Hills United Reformed Church PO Box 485, Hills, MN 56138 O: (507) 962-3254 * H: (507) 962-3255 * E-Mail: KeithandLaura@Juno.com Rev. Casey Freswick, Pastor, Newton Covenant Reformed Church 37 Condit St., Newton, NJ 07860 O: (973) 383-9635 * H/FAX: (973) 383-2263 * E-Mail: cfres@nac.net Rev. Fritz Harms, Pastor, Champlain Valley United Reformed Church 60 Monroe St., Middlebury, VT 05753 H/O: (802) 388-1488 Rev. Douglas Holmes, Pastor, Covenant Reformed Church (ARC) PO Box 10, 612 Adams St., Wellsburg, IA 50680 O: (515) 869-3633 * H: (515) 869-5155 Immanuel Fellowship Church 4430 West "F", Kalamazoo, MI 49009 O: (616) 343-5357 Rev. Jerome Julien, Stated Clerk, United Reformed Churches in North America 3646 - 193rd Pl., Lansing, IL 60438 H/O: (708) 418-5321 * FAX: (708) 418-5591 Rev. Ed Korevaar, Pastor, Preakness (NJ) United Reformed Church 480 Valley Rd., Wayne, NJ 07470 O: (973) 628-1313 * E-Mail: adrian.j.k.@juno.com Rev. Richard J. Kuiken, Pastor, Pompton Plains Reformed Bible Church 415 Boulevard, Pompton Plains, NJ 07444-1099 O: (973) 835-4784 * H: (973) 835-5602 * E-Mail: RKuiken@worldnet.att.net Rev. Timothy Perkins, Pastor, Doon United Reformed Church 608 Rice Ave., Doon, IA 51235 H/O/FAX: (712) 726-3160 * E-Mail: urcperk@heartlandtel.com Rev. Ralph Pontier, Pastor, Redeemer United Reformed Church 4608 Jackson Ave., Orange City, IA 51041-7446 H/O: (712) 737-4901 * FAX: (712) 737-3350 * E-Mail: rpontier@rconnect.com Rev. Ken Sanders, Pastor, Westmoreland Christian Reformed Church (Indep.) 33 Capon Rd., Westmoreland, NH 03466 O: (603) 357-2313 * H: (603) 399-7213 Rev. Jason Tuinstra, Pastor, Community Reformed Bible Church 2158 - 45th Ave., PO Box 255, Highland, IN 46322 O: (219) 365-1417 Rev. Harry Zekveld, Pastor, Cornerstone Orthodox Reformed Church PO Box 544, Sanborn, IA 51248 O: (712) 729-3789 * H: (712) 729-5366 * hzekveld@mtcnet.net ---------------------------------------------------------- file: /pub/resources/text/reformed/archive99: nr99-002.txt .