WINDSOR – Funds from a disbanded church and distributed by a neighbor congregation helped a sister fellowship in a town affected by tornadoes.
On July 5, 2020, Harmony Baptist Church, then located north of Leeton in Johnson County was the victim of an arson fire. The rebuilding was apparently too great a task; therefore, the congregation small and Harmony disbanded in December that same year.
Harmony had originally started as a mission in 1880, of High Point in Windsor, which was founded in 1832. After the fire, the High Point congregation gave $500 to help Harmony.
“They were struggling in attendance and financially at the time of the fire,” High Point pastor Clif Dudley said, adding that Harmony’s Sunday attendance was maybe in the 20s.
When Harmony voted to disband, the money they received from insurance and other funds was disbursed to various other church and benevolence agencies, account to Dudley. Harmony gave High Point $10,000, plus the $500 post-fire gift.
When the Dec. 10, 2021 tornadoes hit Kentucky, it was just over a year since Harmony closed. Dudley looked to see if there was a church in hardest-hit Mayfield with a similar name as his church. He found one. Dudley talked to some of the former Harmony members who are now at High Point in Windsor, and then the High Point body unanimously chose to give $1,000 of the money received from Harmony to High Point Baptist in Mayfield, Ky.
Dudley said the Kentucky church was told to use it as they saw fit.
The Kentucky High Point church had minimal damage, but were said to have served 8,000 hot meals in their community immediate days after the tornado.
The rest of the money from Harmony is used to help those who were part of Harmony to attend children’s camp or other mission projects.