Beauty from ashes.
It’s a favorite phrase of eternal optimists and readers of the Bible, where the words were first placed side by side.
For members of Park Ridge Community Church in Bothell, the ashes are a reality. They hope beauty’s next to come.
Jacob’s Well, a coffee stand that offers morning commuters free java from the church parking lot, went up in smoke early on New Year’s Day.
“The stand is destroyed,” Pastor Brad Sebranke said.
The church opened the stand about eight years ago, Sebranke said. Until the fire, it served about 70 coffee drinks between 5:30 and 9 a.m. each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Though there is a donation box, every drink is free, Sebranke said. Some of the church’s 100 members volunteer their time to pull shots, foam milk — and say “God bless you.”
The church opened the coffee stand as a way to offer people what they need — both physical and spiritual, just like Jesus offered at the ancient Jacob’s Well, Sebranke said.
A woman came to that well for water, but when she met Jesus there, her spiritual needs were met, too.
“That’s what we do with coffee,” he said. “A good quarter of our church is made of people who have come through our coffee shop.”
On New Year’s Eve, church members met at the church for a family game night to ring in 2008, Sebranke said. When they left about 12:45 a.m. on New Year’s Day, all was quiet in the parking lot.
A few hours later, Sebranke received a frantic phone call. A church member drove by the coffee stand around 2:30 a.m. and saw plumes of smoke rising from the building.
Fire crews were called, and the flame was extinguished in less than an hour, said Gary Meek, assistant chief for Snohomish County Fire District 7.
But “it got so hot in there that everything just melted,” Sebranke said.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, Meek said.
All that remained was a shell of the stand — and the shells of used Roman Candles scattered in the parking lot, Sebranke said.
The shells must have been left over from an unauthorized fireworks session held by anonymous revelers in the parking lot after church members left, Sebranke said.
It’s not the first time the stand has been the victim of illegal activity.
About two years ago, someone broke into the stand and stole the espresso machine, Sebranke said. He chained the machine to the counter and added new locks to the doors and windows. About a year ago, someone backed a car into the stand to break in, but couldn’t remove the machine. Instead, the thief took several small items and left, Sebranke said.
“We had to rebuild it then,” he said.
And the church plans to rebuild the stand yet again. Insurance will likely cover the costs, Sebranke said.
After the fire, Sebranke posted a letter on the stand to inform customers what had happened:
“As you can see, someone burned our building,” Sebranke wrote. “We will rebuild and be back with a passion.”
“Right now, our building is destroyed, but God specializes in bringing beauty out of ashes.”
Reporter Krista J. Kapralos: 425-339-3422 or kkapralos@heraldnet.com.
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