It's been a long, hard road to recovery for Community Christian Church after it was severely damaged by the EF-3 tornado that swept through Jefferson City on May 22, 2019.
But after two years and nearly $2 million in repairs, the church held a special service Sunday morning followed by a rededication in the afternoon that included activities and games for the children.
"It's exciting. It's gratifying. I feel really blessed," said Cheryl Carter, who has been a member of the church for about seven years.
She said it's been a milestone to get through the emotional and physical trauma after the tornado and the following pandemic. But she said there have been many blessings along the way.
The tornado struck the building at 11:47 p.m. May 22. Glen Gessley, who was chairman of the church board, met the church's minister there at 2 a.m.
"This is bad, but we can recover from this," he told the minister.
Gessley posted the news on Facebook and advised church members against arriving for a simple cleanup operation. It was going to be much more extensive and time-consuming.
Gessley, a member of the church for four decades, was named the recovery team leader. He quickly tried to remove obstacles to progress by making decisions he could make and deferring to others when appropriate.
"I didn't want idle time," he said, adding he kept people involved by giving them defined assignments.
An assessment revealed extensive damage. One-third of the roof was peeled back, and water damage increased as time went on. More things needed to be removed as more damage became apparent. But the foundation and steel frame were undamaged.
The insurance company and Verslues Construction, the general contractor, both were great to work with, Gessley said. But progress was still slow. It took six months, for instance, for an architectural plan for reconstruction to be submitted to the city.
The other challenge, especially during the height of the pandemic, was to keep the church community together and keep holding worship services.
Much of the past two years services were held in the Hawthorne Bank Community Room.
"We haven't missed a worship service the whole period of time," Gessley said. "Our congregation has stayed intact. Attendance now is pretty much what it was."
He said church elders stepped up to make sure they were in regular contact with church members.
The church has about 90 members, he said, and about 80 people attended Sunday's service.
"This is exciting. I've been on Cloud 9 all week. I'll probably crash tonight," Gessley said. "I want to thank all the people in the community who have been part of our recovery."