Fire Destroys Cambodian CRC Building in Utah
Three young people have been arrested for setting a fire that gutted a large house that the Cambodian Christian Reformed Church in West Valley, Utah, was transforming into offices and classrooms.
The three, ages 12, 14 and 15, were taken into custody on the night of the Oct. 24 blaze.
A few days before the fire, someone had defaced the church property with graffiti and broke all of the windows. However, fire officials and Charlie Phim, pastor of the Cambodian congregation, said they do not believe that the incidents were racially motivated.
Phim said church members had already spent about $15,000 and volunteered many hours of work to clean up and refurbish the house. But he said the congregation does not have insurance to cover the loss.
Begun in 1987 as an outreach of First CRC in Salt Lake City, the nearly 100-member congregation now faces demolishing what is left the structure and working to find the resources to rebuild, Phim said.
Before the fire, church members with the help of CRC youth groups from Utah and surrounding states had torn out and moved walls, replaced ceilings and windows, rewired the electrical system and renovated spaces where the congregation could meet for classes, fellowship and prayer, Phim said.
He said that despite the challenges, the congregation will move forward. Church members and volunteers from area congregations are already discussing plans to raise funds to build a new facility on the site.
Christian Reformed Home Missions helped the congregation to buy the land and the home in 2004. Many of the older members of the congregation had fled Cambodia in the early 1980s when the Communist party led by Pol Pot came to power. They were resettled in Utah.
In a blog that the Cambodian CRC is maintaining to spread the news about the arson and its aftermath, Harry Mornh, one of the church members writes, that the fire should be seen as a calling to revitalize the congregation. “Our parents overcame the odds 20 years ago. Who's to say we can't do it again?”
West Valley City is Utah's second largest city and is located southwest of Salt Lake City.
The congregation has formed a building committee and asked Mike Menning, the former pastor at nearby Mountain Springs CRC, to oversee the process of obtaining permits and seeking bids to demolish the house and to build a new facility.
Jerry Holleman, Home Missions Team Leader for the West Central U.S., said that the fire did not appear to be a hate crime, based on what the teens have told police. He said the congregation planned to use the building for office and meeting space until a worship facility was built on the back of the property.
Menning said plans were drawn up a year or so ago for a permanent church structure.
For more information, visit http://www.cambodiancrc.homestead.com
