Fire destroys Ukraine church, but concert goes on

A Ukrainian church where the Singing Men of North Central Texas group was scheduled to perform a concert burned to the ground, but the Texas Baptist church musicians rented a concert hall for two performances.

Fire destroyed the 1,300-seat sanctuary of Central Baptist Church in Dnipropetrovsk the day before the choir’s scheduled performance. The cause of the fire had not been determined.

“Thanks goes to those who have attended our concerts over the past couple of years and have given so graciously, the Singing Men are able to pay the $2,000 to rent the hall with no problem. God is always so good at providing for our needs,” one of the participants wrote on the Singing Men of North Texas blog.

“The entire team of partners and Singing Men are making pledges to send when we get home to help this church rebuild. … We are seeing if among us—and the churches we represent—if we can raise at least $50,000 to send back to this church here in Dnipropetrovsk,” the blog said.

“The positive side to this story is the publicity that fire has received has thrown more publicity on our being here and the concert getting relocated. We hit the streets this morning to pass out flyers announcing the change in venue. Pray that the flyers that are passed out will bring people to the concert. …We are confident that our great God will turn this tragedy into a triumph. They will be able to build a much nicer building, perhaps even in a better location, and be able to reach many more people.”

A later blog entry noted the combined attendance at the two concerts roughly equaled the capacity of the destroyed church sanctuary.

For the latest information about the Singing Men of North Central Texas mission trip to Ukraine, visit http://smonct.wordpress.com/ .