Published: April 04, 2009 11:43 pm         

Tornado-ravaged Potter Church finds the faith to rebuild

At the end of a stormy day May 24, the dozen or so members of Potter Community Church had no building, no insurance and no doubt. They would rebuild.

Their faith in that matter has been as strong as the foundation upon which it was founded.

“When we first went out there ... when our little church was destroyed,” recalled Sam Jerome, pastor, “there was never a thought in anyone’s mind there was an end. ... I think immediately there was a desire to rebuild.”

A year ago, Potter Com-munity Church members were organizing a fundraiser to put a new roof on their small, country church.

That fundraiser would turn out to be more important than they realized, as an EF2 tornado, with wind speeds of 111-135 mph, raged through the area in late May and left nothing of the church but that roof, sitting raggedly on the ground near where the walls once held it in place.

“We went ahead and had the fundraiser,” Jerome said, “to build a new church.”

Some would have used the storm as a sign from God to give up their little church, but not the Potter congregation, which today numbers 12 to 15, depending on whether “the Skinners bring their grandkids,” Jerome said, with the big smile of a pastor who knows his flock.

That tenacity has paid off, as already this year — on an unseasonably warm day — the congregation has met in its newly rebuilt church, basically just walls and a roof right now.

Jerome said in another month or two, as it warms, the congregation will meet regularly in the church, although the building will not be finished until probably the end of summer.



The little church

that could ...



Potter Community Church didn’t always sit out in the middle of nowhere. It once was a part of a turn-of-the-century community of the same name, courtesy of the town’s first postmaster, Lida Potter, who set up shop 11 miles southeast of Covington on Feb. 4, 1895.

The first services were held in a one-room log schoolhouse and later in the newly built Potter school. That’s where the congregation had its first taste of Mother Nature’s fury, said Bonnie Roberts, whose grandparents were pioneers of the church, during a reunion in 2004.

One of Roberts’ early memories is of a tornado in May 1904 that pushed the building off its foundation during a church service. No one was hurt.

“My mom said the school building was packed with people. You can imagine how scared everyone was. My great-grandfather had the Potter store nearby. The tornado blew the store away,” Roberts said in 2004.

A new facility was constructed in 1904 and dedicated in 1905.

The church outlived the community, however, and remained until the 1950s, when fire destroyed it.

The church members then provided the blueprint for the current congregation, as they, too, decided to forge ahead. An-other old one-room schoolhouse was converted into the church, which was home for its members until last May.

“This is not the end of Potter,” Jerome told his congregation, sitting on benches placed upon the church’s foundation, as they met for Sunday service the day after the tornado hit. “You and your faith will carry on.”

The members did carry on, holding services for the next several months on the lawn of their church property. They worshipped outside, Jerome said, as deer grazed on a hillside nearby and a flock of quail strutted across the driveway, heedless of the fact they were interrupting the sermon.

“We had church on this lawn until November,” Jerome said, “and it got a little cool for us so we had to go inside.”

The congregation since has met at the community building in Orlando, which is about seven miles southeast.

But it’s not their church, and members are anxious to finish the building and come home, Jerome said.

“In 30 days we’ll be in here,” he said, looking up to where a new compact fluorescent light bulb sat in a bare socket, powered by recently wired electricity. “We’ve got a light.”



The fruits of their faith



After the storm, church members were pretty much in the dark when it came to how they would rebuild, even though the desire was present.

Then, Jerome said, as the plight of the small church went out, the offers started to pour in. Someone would donate supplies, another group would offer its time, scores of individuals provided donations of money and sweat equity.

“The support we got from the community ... it’s just been amazing,” said Jerome’s wife, Shirley, who had trouble finding words to express the magnitude of assistance.

By late fall it was enough to get started, and on Nov. 4 that is exactly what the congregation of Potter Com-munity Church did.

“We had a barn raising here,” Jerome said. “Over 50 people showed up to help build.”

While members of Or-lando Methodist Church readied a meal for their fellow Christians, volunteers put up walls and a roof, placed siding and installed windows.

“The next week we put tin on the roof and made it weatherproof,” Jerome said. The little church was snug for a winter that never really arrived in northwest Okla-homa.

Mild weather allowed small tasks to be completed, and electricity was connected inside the church.

A week after Easter a mission group from Yazoo City, Miss. — comprised of members of a sister church Potter has partnered with for years on mission trips — will arrive to help with the sheetrock work, and heat and air installation is expected soon. Plumbing work also is lined up for the near future.

Technically, the target date for an open house to celebrate the rebuilt church is Sept. 27, during the annual Potter reunion, which always is held on the fourth Sunday in September.

“People come back from wherever they are,” Jerome said. “They come back to Potter.”

It will be a wonderful time for fellowship and to celebrate the fruits of their labor, Jerome said.

But his congregation won’t be waiting that long. Even as construction and refurbishing work is being completed on the church this spring and summer, they will worship amid the clutter.

“We’ll just come in and sweep the dust off and just have church.”