Reconnecting in time of crisis

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The women of Malibu Presbyterian Church listen to speaker Michelle Fozounmayeh as she talks about God's plan to lead them through the adversity caused by the fire that completely destroyed the church. The church and its various ministries have been conducting meetings and services at private homes and other places of worship since the fire. Photo by Ruth Lundi / TMT

Smiles, hugs and laughter were on the menu at the regularly scheduled breakfast meeting of the Malibu Presbyterian Church Women’s Ministry. The fact that their church building burned to the ground Oct. 21 didn’t deter them from a morning of fellowship, prayer and worship. They simply moved the location from the church to the home of a member, where about 40 women were in attendance on Saturday.

The fellowship and support aspect of continuing to meet is important, said member Wendy Hughes.

“Stress manifests in different ways,” Hughes said. “This is a coming together and reconnecting. We can still be joyful in the midst of crisis.”

Other groups within the church are doing the same, she said.

“We just go with the flow. People are meeting at other peoples’ houses. There’s a special intimacy in that,” she said. “When the Christian church was first established, they didn’t have a building, they met in homes. Life goes on.”

Speaker for the event and church member Michelle Fozounmayeh was scheduled for this engagement months ago. Her topic remained unchanged and she spoke based upon the popular verse from Ecclesiastes 3: “There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven.”

Fozounmayeh gave many examples from her own life on how “God will provide a way to bring us from here to there, even through adversity.”

Worship leader Mary Schneider echoed that sentiment in her opening prayer, “We know it is no accident that we are here.”

Church member April Arrandt is no stranger to catastrophe and appreciates the supportive atmosphere. She recently moved to Malibu from Miami, where she weathered Hurricane Andrew “for five hours in a bathroom holding my [baby] daughter between two pillows.”

On the morning of the fire, she awoke at about 5 a.m. and “saw the fire coming closer and closer.”

She said she and her daughter were running against 60 mph winds and through thick smoke in an effort to get their valuables and important documents out of her apartment.

“We went to Pasadena for two days,” said Arrandt, whose home was spared.

Lack of a building didn’t affect Malibu Presbyterian member Tamara Campbell’s plans either. Campbell has been teaching a bible study entitled “My Heart. God’s Home. Becoming a Woman Who Lives in the Presence of God.”

At the conclusion of the eight-week study, she said her plan was to recreate a Jewish tabernacle with actual garments and artifacts. After the church burned, the Malibu Jewish Center and Synagogue offered the use of its facility so the program could continue, Pam Katz, the center’s executive director, said.

Campbell views the event as an “historic moment” because it’s rare that Christians conduct any type of activity within a Jewish synagogue. It is “a real reconciliation between Jews and Christians,” she added.

Meanwhile, church elders, members and staff are coping with continuing their responsibilities, while having lost everything at their place of worship.

Church Elder Heidi Embleton said she is especially concerned about the church staff and the “displacency” they are experiencing as they attempt to continue to carry out their responsibilities.

“You go to get a book. It’s not there. You reach for your briefcase. It’s not there,” she said. “They need to know that it doesn’t matter that they don’t have a physical place to go. God is with them wherever they are.”

As for how the plans to rebuild Malibu Presbyterian are progressing, Embleton said laughing, “We are doing it in God’s timing; prayer first, then meetings every week!”

“Instead of being a battlefield doing triage, we are going slow,” Hughes said. There’s no rush, she said, “some of Jesus’ greatest sermons were in fields and on mountains.”

The conclusion of Campbell’s Bible study will take place at the MJF&S this Wednesday at 10:30 a.m.