02/05/10 - Madison County
Lighthouse United
Pentecostal Church was pretty much blown away during the
Super Tuesday Tornado outbreak two years ago February 5.
Since then, church members have rebuilt and they are
celebrating their new home.
"There's no place like
home, no place like home," said Pastor Donald Lance. It
took more than a click of the ruby slippers, though, to
get from complete devastation to a brand new multi
million dollar facility.
Lance said after the
tornado hit church members scattered everywhere. "It's
very, very, very fearful to go through that and keep the
people's hopes up when they were so afraid of the
unknown," said Lance.
It took two years for the
Lighthouse church to get their new home on Old Humboldt
Road near Passmore Lane. "I would have chosen another
way for God to give us a new building. That's what he
chose. God blessed us through a tragedy," said Lance.
Pastor Lance said during
the rebuilding process, his congregation did not have a
permanent home because they worshipped at another
Jackson church. They have moved from a 12,000 square
foot building to a 22,000 square foot building that they
said is more savvy. "The difference between that
building and this one is this one is probably a little
more trendy. We made it more sturdy. They beefed up the
steel and made it stronger," said Lance.
There are also 25 more
acres for the church to grow. "We want to see our vision
expand. What I hope comes out of all this is for us to
have a never ending growth," said Lance.
Lance believes the
tornado caused his worship services to be more emotional
these days, with more lights, cameras and, "Action.
We're putting the action in it during the service. We
have a lot of action around here."
The church hosted a
ribbon cutting ceremony at 6:30 p.m. Following the
ceremony, there was a service at the exact time the
tornado hit 2 years ago.