Gateway Baptist Church opens its doors for a community appreciation day after flood repairs

“The congregation of Gateway Baptist showed its appreciation to Loveland and the individuals who came together to help clean up the church after the September floods.

A community appreciation day and open house on Sunday allowed those who helped salvage the church after about 2 feet of water and mud coated the interior and exterior of the building. Church members happily gave tours to those who came, to show off all the hard work and restoration done.

Nobody was keeping track of the hours put into the post-flood work, but the costs amounted to around $90,000, which pastor James Rice said could have easily been doubled if it weren’t for donations of both financial and time investments they received from the community.

“Everyone came together with a bunch of different talents and skills,” said Don Wright, church deacon. “At a time like that, you lose some people, but for most of us, it made is closer, brought us together. We’ve made a lot of new friends.”

The church had a lot of outside help, from other churches as well as much dedication from its members and neighbors. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sent over nearly 20 missionaries to assist in clean up.

“This was all under water, so I couldn’t get in here to start working right away. But as soon as those doors opened, we were in here,” said Rice, whose wife and sons put in as many as 14 hours in a day to get the church back up and running…”

Read the rest of the article here: Loveland Reporter Herald Newspaper