{"id":226060,"date":"2019-03-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-22T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/church-stays-positive-after-truck-crash\/"},"modified":"2019-03-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-03-22T07:00:00","slug":"church-stays-positive-after-truck-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/church-stays-positive-after-truck-crash\/","title":{"rendered":"Church stays positive after truck crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Por Jeff Clemetson | Editor<\/p>\n

Not everyone greets a truck crashing into their building with humor and forgiveness. But that is exactly how the congregants of the San Diego Taiwanese Presbyterian Church treated a March 6 incident, where a city-contracted tree-trimming truck rolled down a hill on West Point Avenue, across Harbison Avenue and right into the church\u2019s Sunday school building.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt least we can say this morning \u2014 certainly in La Mesa, probably all of San Diego \u2014 we may have the only tree-trimming truck parked in a Sunday school classroom. At least we can get a good laugh out of it,\u201d said John Miller who helps teach English Bible studies at the Taiwanese church at a special Sunday service following the incident.<\/p>\n

The special service on March 10 was held outside and brought together a mix of neighbors and congregants past and present.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to say it is a celebration when something like this happens to the building but in reality we are celebrating life because nobody was hurt so we\u2019re very grateful to be out here,\u201d said Pastor Shuang Tsai through an interpreter.<\/p>\n

Many of the speakers at the service praised the miracle that no one was seriously hurt in the accident. The truck crashed only a foot from gas and electrical lines and according to witnesses almost hit a neighboring home with four children inside.<\/p>\n

John Miller shared that a postman saw the truck start to roll and opened the door to the home with children and warned them to get out because the truck was heading directly to the home but then a curb \u201cdeflected trajectory of the truck, so instead of going into that house it bounced back\u201d and hit the church.<\/p>\n

Most affected by the accident are the Sunday school children who could not use their normal classroom. But, as Pastor Tsai pointed out, they also took the inconvenience in stride.<\/p>\n

\"Church<\/a>
Members of the San Diego Taiwanese Presbyterian Church gathered March 10 to celebrate that no one was hurt in the truck accident. (Photo by Jeff Clemetson)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t complain,\u201d he said. \u201cThey stepped up today and we\u2019re very thankful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to being thankful for the accident not hurting anyone, Pastor Tsai also expressed forgiveness and understanding for the workers in charge of the truck that crashed into the church.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne prayer today is about this person who operated this vehicle,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we really don\u2019t know who it is, but we know how bad he feels and I think through our prayer we need to kind of ask God to comfort him and have mercy so he has that peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sunday school activities at San Diego Taiwanese Presbyterian Church will also need to find some peace in a different part of the church \u2014 at least for a little while.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe truck is going to be here for several weeks because they have to get a permit to be able to raise the building and move the truck out,\u201d said Jenelle Miller, wife of John Miller who also helps at the church.<\/p>\n

But the church might not have to wait too long to remove the truck and get fixed back up because of the help of some \u201cgood Samaritans\u201d\u2014 a professional external designer, who happened to drive by and see the truck crashed into the church, has offered to help the church rebuild, and the city of La Mesa has already fast-tracked some permits to get the rebuild started, said church elder Winnie Davis.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the church members are staying upbeat and taking the situation in stride with some humor.<\/p>\n

At the special service, Pastor Arturo Ayala, who runs a Spanish-speaking Pentacostal congregation that rents the church for Sunday afternoon services, likened the accident to Christ\u2019s message of acceptance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWow, he opened a big door now,\u201d he said. \u201cThank you Lord, you sent a message to us to be open-hearted and receive all the community around because we are one church.\u201d<\/p>\n

- Comun\u00edquese con Jeff Clemetson en jeff@sdcnn.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Por Jeff Clemetson | Editor<\/p>","protected":false},"author":778,"featured_media":226061,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11548","_seopress_titles_title":"Church stays positive after truck crash","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11548,11551,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-226060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-mesa-courier","category-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/778"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}