Despite a week of changes and the unexpected, one constant for many residents is Sunday morning church.
That was no different this week at First Baptist Church Nederland, which held its Sunday morning worship as usual.

This week’s service was a little more packed though, as members from flooded Memorial Baptist Church in Port Arthur, first responders from North Carolina, a group of Texas Rangers and other visitors from across the country joined in worship.

“Our church is as full as it’s been in a long time,” said FBC Nederland senior pastor Jason Burden. “We are blessed. By virtue of us being able to open the doors of our church. If Hurricane Harvey has done anything, it’s to remind us the importance of being prayerful … I believe God had positioned us to here to be a blessing to all of those who are hurting around us.”

The church opened their service with prayer and a greeting from Memorial Baptist pastor Bill Brazell.

“It’s a delight to be able to worship with you this morning,” Brazell told FBC Nederland members. “I appreciate brother Jason; he’s stayed in touch with me through all of this and was one of the first people to contact me to find out what your church could do to help us.”

Brazell said his Port Arthur congregation might be worshipping with Nederland for some time until repairs can be made to Memorial Baptist.

“We are going to get through this together. We may be worshipping with you for a while. Our family will draw strength from your family, Brazell said.

For his sermon, Burden drew inspiration from the fourth chapter of Mark, when Jesus calms the storm on the Sea of Galilee.

Burden told churchgoers that God is greater than the storm that has affected the community and that church now has a purpose to be a blessing to those recovering and rebuilding. He said he’s never valued simple things like a cup of ice water like he has this past week.

“The things I thought were important, were meaningful — those things hardly matter at all. People matter,” Burden said. “If you’re hurting right now, God wants to bless you.”

In addition to Sunday morning worship, there was a community wide prayer gathering Sunday night at Bulldog Stadium, where people gathered to pray for the community as it recovers from Tropical Storm Harvey.