Welcome and thank you for being interested - and start here: the whole story in pictures.
In 2016, my wife and I moved to this city to lead a church planting team. We started small, made plenty of mistakes, saw people come and go, faced hard times—and by 2023, we had become an independent church. Then, in September 2024, we were flooded. The facility isn’t technically ours—it belongs to our former mother church, and we rent it both as our family home and as the hub for all our ministry—but we’ve come to call it home. Thankfully, our apartment is high enough that we can still live there as a family, but as a church, we’ve lost our home.
All Sunday, we watched as the water level slowly
rose, inching closer to Elim. Sandbags were stacked around the door, and for a
while, it looked like we might be okay. But we weren’t. The water rose a foot
higher than the predictions, easily breaching the sandbags. Eventually, the
force of the water broke through the door. By the time it stopped, the water
inside reached up to the doorknobs on the ground floor.
The
next week was spent hauling out ruined furniture, damaged equipment, and
tearing up the destroyed gym floor and paneling. As a church, we found
ourselves without a home—Sunday services on damp concrete simply weren’t and
still aren’t an option. Our Wednesday volleyball games, which had been a great
way to connect with our unbelieving friends, are on hold for the next several
months. The local elementary school lost its sports field, and even the
nonprofit organization we partner with is scrambling to find new venues for its
activities.
Elim was founded 20 years ago as a multipurpose facility designed to serve the community and bring people to Christ. Today, the walls on the ground floor bear a brown watermark three feet high—a lasting reminder of the flood’s peak. The club room, storerooms, and offices have all been stripped of their equipment. While our desire to serve the community and share Christ hasn’t wavered, we now face significant challenges. And we can’t overcome them alone. That’s why I’m sharing this story with you.
Restoring Elim will cost $350,000, as we’ve decided not to simply
rebuild—we’re preparing Elim for the decades to come:
- The new gymnasium will be
much better suited for worship than the old one ever was.
- It will no longer be
unbearably hot in the summer or cold in the winter.
- The gym will be equipped
to host larger events.
- The space that was once
just a youth-at-risk clubroom will be transformed into a welcoming area
for mothers with children, small group discussions, and more.
Lord willing.
There are many ways you can become a part of this story and help move it forward. Here’s how you can be a blessing:
- Be our ambassador. Maybe you’re not in a
position to give, but someone in your circle—your cousin, your boss, your
neighbor, your friend—might be. Please share our story with them or
connect us.
- Pray with us. God’s power has no
limits, and your prayers can make all the difference.
- Consider contributing. Any amount, big or small, will help us move forward, just use this QR code:
Thank you for taking the time to hear our story. We are trusting God to bring beauty from these challenges, and we’d love for you to be part of it.
Tomáš Kolman
pastor