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BY LINDA WORTHINGTON
UMCONNECTION STAFF

A little past noon on Tuesday, Jan. 23, the Rev. EunJoung Joo left the church to go home for lunch at the brick parsonage next door to Glen Burnie UMC, where she is associate pastor. As she began to enter the house she saw smoke pouring out the windows, and spreading rapidly throughout the house.

No one was hurt.

The Rev. Kelly Steven Sparks, the church?s senior pastor, was in his office in the large church, when he was alerted that smoke was streaming from the parsonage. He and others ran outside, but soon realized the house was unsafe to enter.

As soon as the fire department was called, Joo contacted her husband, Myung Ha Baek, a student at Wesley Seminary, who left his classes and hurried home.

The fire trucks arrived within two or three minutes, and kept coming until there were a dozen, Sparks said.

Very little was able to be salvaged and the house is unlivable. 'The only things that won?t need to be replaced are the bricks,' Sparks said. If furniture, clothing, appliances, books and personal effects weren?t burned beyond use, they were damaged by water from the fire trucks attempting to save part of the house.

The church office notified the chairman of the trustees, Sally Taylor, and the insurance company whose representative is a church member. They, too, joined the crowd gathering at the scene.

'It was overwhelming,' Taylor said. The Red Cross arrived and gave Joo and Baek a temporary credit card for a week?s food and clothing, Taylor added. 'We have a place for them to stay through Sunday.'

A church member has offered a temporary home for the couple, and the members are already mobilizing to get them supplies, since they lost virtually everything. 'They will need help,' Taylor said.

'It will likely be many months before the house is habitable again,' Sparks said. In the meantime, they will find housing for their associate pastor. 'We have some leads,' Sparks said.