The Tornado That Cleared a Path to Something New

How God Turned a Disaster into an Opportunity

“I was in disbelief,” says Aaron Johnson, remembering the tornado that struck Harrisburg, Pa., in the early morning of August 9, 2024. “I found it hard to believe because we don’t really get tornados in Pa. and there wasn’t really damage to the buildings surrounding the church.”

The church he’s referring to is Harrisburg BIC (HBIC), where he serves as facility manager. The tornado ripped HBIC’s roof off and destroyed the administrative, children’s ministry, and food pantry areas.

In the two years since the tornado, God’s providence has been obvious. Harrisburg BIC’s resilience has carried them through challenging moments, and now the congregation looks ahead to a future filled with promise.

Ministry in the Messy Middle

The congregation that would become Harrisburg BIC first formed in 1962, and in the ‘90s they cultivated the vision of a multi-ethnic urban church, which still remains central to their mission today.

The congregation purchased its current building – a former car dealership on Derry Street – in 2005 and transformed it into a vibrant place of worship and ministry. Over 400 people worship at HBIC each week, and hundreds more are impacted through their active outreach ministries.

“Managing the facility since the tornado has been challenging,” says Aaron. Despite the damage, about half the building – including the sanctuary – was still safe and usable, and the HBIC team was determined to continue ministering to their congregation and neighborhood.

Children’s and youth ministry was the most impacted. Sunday morning children’s ministry moved into the area usually reserved for the youth. “Everyone has been so resilient and understanding,” says Patty Patterson, pastor of children’s ministries. “We do what we need to do to keep the areas safe and usable for the kids.”

Teen ministry ended up going off-site; their Sunday school class walks to a restaurant across the street, and on Wednesday evenings they load up the youth group and drive to local ministries that have generously shared their space. “My youth and families have done a wonderful job with all of the shifting dynamics,” says Brie Thompson, pastor of youth and young adults, “but with the transition details, we lose time and opportunities to connect with our students.”

While taking the youth off-site was the best solution for them, several outreach ministries have invited people farther into the church than they had before. The food pantry (serving about 150 families each month) and classes for English Language Learners (ELL, which teaches about 80 adult students weekly) all moved into the multipurpose spaces in the church.

“Inviting our neighbors into the sanctuary allowed them to see that this is their church too,” says Carmen Dones, pastor of outreach.

She acknowledges that it’s a lot of labor to rearrange the sanctuary space multiple times each week to facilitate the various ministries, but there’s also a blessing. “It’s allowed us to have more conversations, prayer, and familiarity with people involved in those ministries.”

Building Back Better

While the tornado brought significant disruption to the congregation, it also created new opportunities.

Since moving into the building over 20 years ago, HBIC has worked with the space they had. Minimal work had been done to the admin offices, children’s ministry areas were spread out, and the food pantry and ELL classes were quickly outgrowing their spaces. Renovating those areas would have been nice, but a building project wasn’t their top priority.

That is until the tornado struck.

“We now had the chance to redesign and refresh our space to be more ministry focused,” says Aaron. They had to fix the damage anyway; why not seize the opportunity to make changes to better facilitate current and future ministry?

Harrisburg BIC chose to work with the BIC Foundation, securing a loan for renovation costs not covered by their building insurance. In their loan application, they described their renovation goals:

“Now that we have a blank canvas, we want to build back better. Pastors will have offices, and there will be a secure entrance into the admin space. The food pantry will have a large area available for people to congregate prior to selecting their provisions, and the ELL classes will have a more dedicated learning space. Additionally, the children’s education space will now house all children from infant to 5th grade within a secure area with proper check-in and checkout procedures implemented.”

Renovated for Renewal

On April 22, 2026 – 621 days after the tornado hit – the renovation began, and they anticipate moving into the newly renovated spaces around Christmas 2026. As the rebuilding project nears completion, the staff is looking forward to the new possibilities it represents.

Watch a virtual tour of the renovated space on Facebook.

“I’m most excited that the church will be set up in a way that really facilitates ministry,” says Aaron. “Before we just made stuff work in spaces that were not set up the best because that is just what we had.”

Carmen is excited that HBIC’s outreach ministries will be more accessible to their neighbors. “We are moving the food pantry to the main level of Derry St. which will give us more visibility.”

Brie is hopeful for a return to normalcy. “I’m looking forward to youth having more time to chat and connect, to be able to incorporate more technology again, and to even have youth-led worship in our regular programming.”

For some of HBIC’s youngest congregants, it’s hard to recall all the changes that have come in the past two years. “Many of the kids don’t even remember the old area, which is a little comical,” says Patty.

She has seen God use this season for growth, both for the congregation and for her personally. “We were very discouraged in the beginning,” she says, “but God has shown us ways to continue ministry. He has definitely stretched me and the team, and we are very excited about what is to come.”

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