KANSAS CITY, MO — Freedom Fire Urban Ministries rallied to pick up the pieces after a truck crashed through the church early Tuesday morning, leaving the building in ruin.
“When I saw the truck it was a bit surreal to see an automobile sticking out of the building where you do church on Sundays,” said Bruce McGregor, founder and president of Freedom Fire Urban Ministries.
Police say a red Chevy Silverado sped southbound on north Troost around 1 a.m., hitting a white Nissan Altima occupied by both a driver and passenger, before traveling down the side of a bridge, crashing into the building on 85th and Troost.
“I got a call from our security company that the alarm went off and I checked our security cameras and saw something was happening. So I drove down here and saw that there was a truck that had driven through the front of our building,” McGregor said.
When McGregor realized the severity of the crash, he says he was concerned about the condition of the drivers and passenger, but also thought about what is next for the facility.
“A little disheartening because we have been putting a lot of money and sweat equity into the building making it into a beautiful community center for the neighborhood," he said.
Members of Freedom Fire Urban Ministries worked to rebuild on Tuesday, putting up a new wall to cover the hole.
When it comes to having church service this Sunday, Lead Pastor Melvin Cole says they plan to take what's broken and make it into something new.
“We’ve been really connecting with people outside of the four walls of this building," Cole said. "Sunday morning I think the church is going to gather on the basketball court and we will just have our services there if the weather permits."
Now Cole, McGregor and others are cleaning up the rubble and putting the pieces back into place to continue their mission of serving the community like the ministry has for the past 25 years.
“In some ways it’s symbolic, a lot of the folks that we work with have had so many setbacks in their life, and they had to learn to be resilient and bounce back. We want this ordeal to be symbolic of that,” McGregor said.
