Early Monday morning, Elim Church’s lead pastor Marvin Wojda’s reality was disrupted when he found out the church had flooded.
Wojda said a staff member was the one to receive the call.
“One of our staff who looks after the building got the call, I think around 5 in the morning or so”.
The staff member called the city to shut off the water but Wojda said a security alarm gave him an idea of how long the water had been flowing.
“We think that the water may have actually flown into the building for a couple of hours” he said.
Wojda himself didn’t hear about the flooding until about 7:30 a.m. when he was driving towards an appointment.
“There was no description, it was just that we’ve had a major water break, so our main water line into the building broke, failed, and that’s what caused the flooding” said Wojda.
The pressure of the water broke the concrete causing not only water but mud to fill the church.
When pastor Marvin Wojda made it to the church and saw the damage, he was shocked,
“It’s pretty hard to describe. It’s pretty shocking to walk into a disaster zone because that’s what it is, it’s disastrous,” he said.
The building needs all new electrical panels, carpets, and even some drywall. It could take weeks to get the electrical panels alone, said Wojda.
“We don’t really know because it’s so early on in the process. We have been told that it will be probably six weeks before power is restored to the building because we have to replace our power panels,” he said.
“We’re talking likely months until we are able to be in the building, but we don’t know for sure”.
Many other churches across Saskatoon have offered space after the flooding.
“My phone has been buzzing constantly of offers and fellow pastors in the city saying, ‘Hey, how can we help?'” said Wojda.
This weekend, Wojda is looking at moving his service to Circle Drive Church and will visit with them Saturday to see what is possible.