WALL LAKE, Iowa—Denise McMillen was in the kitchen when she smelled the fire. Looking up, she saw smoke was already billowing down from the stairwell. Gathering the six children who were in the house, she ran outside.
“My 14-year-old son had just called upstairs and asked that all the kids come down. He said they had chores to do,” Denise told KCAU-TV. “They had all come downstairs. Some of the little kids were in the bathtub and they were all safe downstairs.”
Pastor Ken McMillen was at Wall Lake Baptist Church with two more of his sons when he heard the news. Rushing home, he discovered his family was safe. The fire blazed for two hours, destroying the upper level and ruining the rest of the home with water and smoke damage.
“My first thought in my mind was, ‘Thank, You, God that my kids are okay’ and then my first words were, ‘It’s gone,’ ” Pastor McMillen told KTIV-TV.
While the fire was still burning, many church members and community friends gave support, offering temporary lodging, food, and money to support the family of 13. The McMillens have daughters at home who are 22, 13, and 6 years old and sons ages 18, 16, 14, 9, 8, 4 and 2.
“We’re grieved, and the more we realize what has happened here, the harder it becomes, but our hope and faith is in the Lord,” says Pastor McMillen, who is a graduate of Faith Baptist Bible College and has been pastor of Wall Lake Baptist Church for 11 years. “I’ll tell you what, I wouldn’t want to be in any other community than Sac City, Wall Lake, and Lakeview.”
“You really realize what’s really important when something like this happens to you. Things of your family, and neighbors, and things eternal rule the day. Temporal things can be replaced,” Pastor McMillen says.
The Iowa Association of Regular Baptist Churches has set up a fund for donations to the McMillen family. Checks to the IARBC Philippian Providers Fund can be mailed to:
Iowa Association of Regular Baptist Churches 110 SE Grant, Suite 201 Ankeny, Iowa 50021A local bank has also set up a fund for donations to the McMillen family:
Bank Midwest Wall Lake102 W 2nd Street
Wall Lake, Iowa 51466
