A church in Eagan, Minnesota, will celebrate Christmas in a borrowed space after a fire broke out in its building on Friday (Dec. 19). Grace Slavic Church, a congregation that holds services primarily in Russian, is receiving an outpouring of support from the community—including from nearby churches.
The Eagan Fire Department said it responded to a structure fire at around 4 p.m. on Friday. When firefighters arrived, they discovered a three-alarm fire at Grace Slavic Church. With the help of several local fire departments, the fire was extinguished by 6:50 p.m. However, the damage was significant.
While two people were in the building when the fire started, no one was injured.
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Nicolay Afanasyev, a longtime sound technician and deacon at the church, told KARE 11, “It was unbelievable. I still thought it was just some kind of Hollywood movie scene.”
“So far, they said this part is 100% total loss,” Afanasyev said. “My dad died about three years ago, and the doors that are actually in the entry to the sanctuary, he used to work on doors. They were built by him. There’s a Bible there from, like, the 1800s…that stuff is not replaceable.”
Nevertheless, Afanasyev said, “The cross standing on that stage is just showing me that God’s got us.”
Grace Slavic Church has long been a fixture of the community, serving as a drop-off site for Samaritan’s Purse’s Operation Christmas Child and cultivating a welcoming environment for Ukrainian immigrants. Now, the church is leaning on the community to help it through this crisis.
Afanasyev’s wife, Diana, told CBS News, “Fifteen-plus churches reached out to us…and they offered their buildings.”
“When you feel people flocking in to help, people who don’t even know you, it makes you feel that you know truly God’s love,” she added.
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However, Diana told FOX 9, “It’s extremely hard because this church was not just a building, to be honest. It was where we worship. It’s where we built community.”
