San Antonio – 4/11/20 Update:
Women and children undergoing recovery with the Sold Out Believers Christian Fellowship Church now have a roof over their heads.
This comes after a fire tore through their women’s recovery campus, destroying everything inside. The campus helped women going through drug and alcohol addiction as well as domestic abuse.
Church officials said eight women and three children were displaced after the fire.
However, according to Pastor Ray Torres, a good Samaritan in the community has volunteered their property to house all of the women and children until the church can find a better home.
“Thank you so much from the bottom of Sold Out Believers,” said Robert Allen with the Men’s Recovery Campus. “Our church is very faithful. We care about the community and will continue to care about the community. We thank the community for caring about us.”
Original:
A local East Side church is asking for the community’s help after their women’s recovery campus was destroyed by an accidental fire. The Sold Out Believers Christian Fellowship had the campus for four years.
“We house women and their children here,” said Carlos Rodriguez, one of the church’s ministers. “It is a vital part of our community because we help women that are dealing with drug addiction, homelessness, bad relationships and have just fallen on hard times. We don’t discriminate. We welcome them.”
San Antonio fire officials said the fire started Tuesday evening around 7:00 p.m. Church officials learned the fire accidentally started at the hands of a child.
“From what we gathered, he was playing with something flammable in the backyard,” said Robert Allen with the church’s men’s campus. “We don’t know if it was a firecracker or what, but whatever it was started a fire in the yard, spread to the home and up the back of the home. It eventually got inside where it destroyed everything.”
Allen said the young child is heartbroken from the destruction caused.
“The child’s mother is a woman of faith and is bringing him up with the right guidance,” Allen said. “It was an accident. He is very remorseful. He wishes it wouldn’t have happened but as we move forward, there are so many things in life that are unpredictable.”
Unfortunately, eight women and three children were displaced.
“The first thing we thought was that the enemy is trying to attack us,” Rodriguez said. “We are a faith-based organization, and this was just one of the things we heard on that particular day. We were just like, ‘Wow.’”
“We are just blessed that all of our sisters made it out safely,” Allen said. “We are so blessed no one was hurt.”
Now, the women and children are being housed in a different location, however, the conditions of that location are abnormal.
“The setup is not for a living arrangement but by the grace of God, they are making it work,” Allen said. “We hope that we can get them in somewhere sometime soon so they can get back to a semi-normal life, considering what we are going through right now.”
Rodriguez said though they lost everything with the home, they are holding true to their faith.
“We are just going to keep moving forward and know that this is not going to stop us from our mission,” Rodriguez said. “That we are going to continue moving forward and bringing women and men in and whoever needs help. We are going to continue to do what we need to do and what we are called to do.”
Sadly, the women and children didn’t just lose their home, but they lost several essential items like toiletries, clothes, food and more. So far, they’ve received a few calls of support.
“Anything is a blessing,” Allen said. “We are so thankful for those who have called to help us with material from the bottom of our hearts. We deeply care about the community. We will continue to care about the community, and we thank you for caring about us. Our church is very faithful. We are a family and family helps family. People help people. We are just thankful for any support we can get right now.”
They are asking anyone who would like to help with a donation, to text ‘GIVE’ to (830)-200-0711.
“Whatever you find in your heart to help us out would be a major blessing to the church,” Rodriguez said. “You know, dealing with the overall crisis this world is going through right now, sometimes, you never know when you are going to get hit on a personal level. This is a real thing we are all going through right now. I hope this world would just continue the good fight of faith and continue forward.”
‘It won’t stop us from moving forward,’ Homeowner says after house destroyed in fire
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, church officials hope to have the women and children safely in a shelter sooner rather than later. In the meantime, they are praying that they stay strong.
“We are blessed because these women have a strong backbone,” Rodriguez said. “We have women who have been in the program for some time, so they are keeping each other uplifted as much as they can. God didn’t tell us to live in fear. We need to cut the legs off fear and let’s grow some legs on our faith. We can stand on that because we have an awesome foundation and that is the blood of Jesus Christ.”