Flat, Texas pastor fighting fires on front lines as church members offer support to first responders
FLAT, Texas (KWTX) - At First Baptist Church in Flat, they have opened their hearts and their doors to anyone who may need it while fires rage on just outside of their community.
When fires scorched thousands of acres and began to threaten the community of Flat, Gladys Whitenburg and the organization of Righteous Roots stepped up.
“We let the community know that we were receiving donations, non-perishable foods, water, drinks, and at the time we were asking for shelter,” Whitenburg said.
Anyone forced out of their homes had a place to stay with them.
Then once the evacuation order was lifted, they shifted gears to the next need of providing nourishment for those on the front lines.
“The members of our church have been here since the early hours of this morning preparing food, providing drinks,” Whitemburg said.
It was this effort that spurred communities from across the region to also answer the call. People traveled from near and far to donate as first responders poured into First Baptist Church.
“We came into Gatesville to HEB to pick up food for the firefighters, didn’t announce it really, just told them a little bit of what we were doing and the manager came out and said HEB is going to cover all of it,” Andrew Sobities, the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Hamilton said as he dropped off donations.
With so much generosity, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Flat is leading by example in more ways than one.
“We got a call that it was on our church member’s doorsteps so we went up there to check on some of the elderly and that’s when we got the evacuation notice,” Ron Lowe said.
“So we got the elderly out, we came home and got them to a safe place.”
From there, Lowe went and jumped on the front lines where he has been volunteering to help fight fires.
“I couldn’t live with myself if one house was lost and I didn’t do anything,” Lowe said.
“I don’t know if I can make a big difference but I can make whatever difference I can make.”
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