Keys flooding is God’s ‘fresh work’ in pastor’s life

Nov 10, 2005
JAMES A. SMITH SR.
Executive Editor

KEY WEST (FBW) – Suzanne Phillips is grateful to God even while attempting to salvage a few of her family’s water-logged belongings after Hurricane Wilma’s unexpected storm surge Oct. 24 flooded the parsonage, requiring an emergency evacuation by boat.

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The inundated spit of land surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean in the U.S.’s southernmost city is “where God wanted us,” said the pastor’s wife of First Baptist Church of Big Coppitt in Key West. “I’d rather be here where God wants me flooded out than where my family wants me dry.”

Suzanne Phillips attempts to salvage a few of her family’s water-logged belongings after Hurricane Wilma flooded the parsonage Oct. 24. Photo by James A. Smith Sr.

Suzanne and her husband, Tim, pastor of First Baptist Big Coppitt for almost three years, spoke with Florida Baptist Witness Oct. 27, three days after Wilma brought about four feet of saltwater into their church building and home located just a few blocks from the Atlantic Ocean on one side and less than a half-mile from the Gulf of Mexico on the other side.

The Phillips’ escaped from their home in the early morning hours Oct. 24 as the category three hurricane churned through the Gulf. When the waters suddenly overwhelmed the house, Tim and Suzanne secured their three-year-old daughter in a life-jacket and put her and their 13-year-old son into a boat sitting outside the laundry room window. Scrambling out of the window with a few essentials, the family fled their home not knowing how high the waters would rise.

The Phillips’ floated to a neighbor’s house – built on stilts higher than the surge – and waited out the storm and its flooding. They came home to virtually a total loss, including Tim’s car.

Four feet of saltwater flooded First Baptist Church in Big Coppitt during an unexpected storm surge from Hurricane Wilma on Oct. 24. Photo by James A. Smith Sr.

The church building suffered the same fate – with jumbled pews in the sanctuary, floated out of position, ruined carpeting, lost audio equipment, furniture, business machines and computers. Tim lost hundreds of books on the bottom two shelves of the floor-to-ceiling bookcases in his study next to the sanctuary.

“In insurance vernacular, it’s a total loss,” Tim told the Witness.

In a follow-up telephone interview Nov. 4, Tim said an insurance adjustor was scheduled to assess the church’s damages Nov. 5 and then all the soaked and ruined furniture and equipment would be removed. First Baptist Church of Big Pine Key would be helping the small congregation with the clean-up, he said.

“Snow birds” populate First Baptist Big Coppitt in the fall and winter months raising its attendance to as much as 125, but during the off-season months the congregation will number 35-70. Many of the snow birds, according to Tim, may not come back this season.

Contrary to what would be conventional wisdom for most, Tim sees the flooding as part of God’s “fresh work in my life,” he said Oct. 27. “Five years ago I would have had a different outlook about this whole thing, a much different outlook about it. God’s changing my heart and that’s what He’s in the business of doing.”

Suzanne was more interested in the things God protected than the items lost.

“We’re very blessed; we’re very fortunate. He is just such an incredible God that I look at the stuff that I’m able to save. I just found my wedding pictures that I haven’t seen in six years and I’m going to be able to save those,” Suzanne said as she picked through her soaked belongings.

All things considered, the children are doing well in the wake of the disaster, Suzanne said. Hallie is happy that a few of her toys are okay and Taylor, although disappointed that he lost his favorite video game system, was doing his best to help out. “He saved 50 needle fish today and took them back to the ocean,” she said.

“This is really a disaster; it’s our disaster, but it’s not the disaster of all time,” Suzanne said.

Tim told the Witness, “We just have to put things in perspective – you can’t take it with you. Lay not for yourselves treasures on earth.”

First Baptist Big Coppitt ministers in a difficult environment, Sonny Pritchett, director of missions for the Florida Keys Baptist Association told the Witness Oct. 27.

“It’s mission work. I love the pastors down here. This is a hard place. The further south down toward Key West you get, the [spiritually and morally] darker it gets. It’s a difficult place to minister in; it’s a difficult place to try to keep your church going. It’s very transient,” Pritchett said.

Noting Key West’s notorious reputation for immorality, including an activist homosexual presence, Pritchett said some citizens are firmly “set against God” and “will get up in arms if you begin to speak out against some of the things we as Baptists know to speak out against. Homosexuality is a big deal.”

Tim Phillips agrees the morally toxic atmosphere is not ideal for his children, but he sees the Keys as not significantly different from the rest of American society.

“Many will say this is a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah, but you know this is our society and it’s becoming more and more like that, not just in the Keys. The way I look at it, people need Jesus. Those folks need to know the love of Jesus Christ and He alone is going to change their hearts. If I’m an agent to be able to do that, that’s great.”

Worse than the blatant immorality is the “unconcerned, very apathetic” attitude toward spiritual things common to many residents of the Keys, he said.

Noting that he recently returned from a mission trip to the Amazon River Basin in Brazil where people were very interested in hearing about Jesus Christ, Tim said, “I can go two blocks from here and tell you somebody who has never heard the Gospel. So they’re not just unchurched, they’re totally unaware of this sort of thing.”

Both Tim and Suzanne expressed gratitude for the concern and support they have received from Florida Baptist Convention leaders.

“Florida has the best Convention; they take care of their churches and pastors so well,” Suzanne said, noting that she has recently been teaching their church about the importance of the Cooperative Program in the wake of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief efforts for hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

“Now [our church members] are going to see feet to those words” as they observe Disaster Relief efforts following Wilma.

Asked what Florida Baptists should know about his ministry post-Wilma, Tim told the Witness, “The news is that Christ is Lord everywhere we are. … We’ve lost everything we have, practically. We’re a little short with each other sometimes because it is a stressful time, but at the same time our faith has not diminished at all. As a matter of fact, that’s the thing that’s carrying us through.”

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