By Mennonite Weekly Review staff

	Ashes and ruins were all that was left of Emmaus Mennonite Church after a Jan. 29 fire. — Photo by Paul Schrag/MWR

The 79-year-old building, which housed a nearly 500-member congregation, was a total loss.

The morning after the fire, members and others drove past the church site as a bitter wind whipped snow flurries around the blackened ruins.

Associate pastor Bill Wiebe said members he talked to were keeping a positive spirit.

“There’s been a total upbeat feeling,” he said. “We feel God had a divine purpose in it.

“We don’t want to be discouraged but to look ahead to what God has for us.”

The congregation was in the midst of hosting a Bible conference and had met at the church the evening before the fire. Swiss Community Church hosted the conference Jan. 29.

The conference speaker, Rick Gregory, a Bible church pastor from California, spoke on the morning after the fire of God’s perfect plan, said Richard Harder, chair of the elder board.

“That helped us take our eyes off the ashes and see what God would have us do,” Harder said.

No one was injured in the fire, for which the cause was not known. The loss was estimated at more than $2 million, Wiebe said. The congregation expects to worship at Berean Academy, a Christian school in nearby Elbing, until it rebuilds.

Emmaus does not currently have a lead pastor. Ted Veer serves as interim pastor, while Wiebe and Laverne Busenitz are associate pastors.

The independent congregation formerly was a member of the General Conference Mennonite Church.