Las Vegas congregation can now love the Lord in comfort

The congregation sweated through the broiling Las Vegas summers for two years.

After thieves stripped the copper from their air conditioning units, the members of Zion Holiness Last Trumpet Ministries, a small church downtown, had to make do mostly with fans.

“Well, you know, when you love the Lord, you do what you’ve got to do,” Pastor Charles Allen said. “If it means you suffer for a bit, you suffer for a bit.”

Now they can love the Lord in comfort. On Thursday morning, thanks to donations, a new 4-ton air conditioning unit was installed at the church — just in time for Easter Sunday.

The donation came about after Allen, who makes a living shining shoes at the South Point, started talking to a customer about two months ago.

The customer said he worked in air conditioning, and as the two chatted, Allen told him the church’s story.

That customer turned out to be Kenneth Goodrich, who runs a local company called Honeybee AC. He gave Allen his card and said he would keep an eye out for a used air conditioner to give the church.

But eventually, Goodrich got a new one donated by manufacturer Goodman.

Curt Coker, a manager for Honeybee, said the company donates air conditioner installations several times a year for needy people and organizations.

“It’s not a luxury here; it’s a life-support system,” Coker said as he stood on the church’s roof Thursday, waiting for the crane that would install the new unit.

Thieves get only a few bucks for the copper they rip out of air conditioning units, drain lines or even streetlight poles. But it can cause thousands of dollars in damage. The new unit would have cost about $8,700 with labor and permits.

When the two met, Goodman told Allen, “I know what you’re going through,” explaining that he had heard of 14 units vandalized at one time.

“That’s a big, big problem all over town,” Coker said.

The church is planning to put cages around the new unit and the other ones to discourage thieves.

Zion Holiness, which has about 150 members, sits in a small strip of storefronts on Stewart Avenue. Allen said it was a tiny church when he joined six years ago and brought a congregation of about 10 from his previous church.

Three years ago, when the church occupied a smaller space in the same building, a thief started vandalizing the air conditioning unit but didn’t finish the job. The landlord had it fixed.

But then, about two years ago, the church was hit again, with two units destroyed and one damaged. The church fixed the damaged one but couldn’t afford to replace the others. Insurance didn’t cover it, Allen said.

When something small needs to be fixed, church members get the money together. But it’s not a wealthy congregation, and this was beyond their reach.

Asked whether the church sought help from another church or some other group, Allen said: “We’re kind of unique. We’re an independent congregation. ... We just stand on our own, and we have faith in Christ.”

The one unit left couldn’t begin to cool the sanctuary, especially with 100 people there for Sunday services. The church set up fans in the back of the room and handed out paper fans. In wintertime — or what passes for it in Las Vegas — there were space heaters.

The heat was especially hard on seniors and children. The church cut back on choir rehearsals and moved kids’ Bible study to the main sanctuary.

Allen said they tried changing the Sunday service to 8 a.m., but it proved too early. So it remained 11:30. When the heat wasn’t too bad, they’d keep the side doors open to get a breeze going, aided by fans.

But some weeks, no amount of ventilation could make it bearable. On one summer Sunday last year, July 13, the high was 109 degrees.

About eight times last year, a mass text went out late in the week, and Allen posted a sign on the door: No services this Sunday.

On Thursday morning, a crane lifted the old air conditioning unit off the roof. Jeffrey Mills, a crane operator with Walker Crane, then hoisted up the new green Goodman unit and swung it over to the roof, where workers guided it into place.

Workers planned to spend about an hour connecting the ductwork, electricity and plumbing lines.

“This is a blessing,” Demetrius Stanley, a church deacon, said as he watched.

When Allen announced the new air conditioner to the congregation recently, some people didn’t seem to believe it. As he recalled, “They still kind of looked at me funny.”

“Most people that are poor, you know; they’ve been promised a lot of things, and it didn’t happen,” Allen said.

Contact Eric Hartley at ehartley@reviewjournal.com or 702-550-9229. Find him on Twitter: @ethartley