When Greg Cochran, a student pastor at First United Methodist Church in Carrollton, arrived to work in the basement youth center Monday he was stopped at the top of the stairs by the sight of mud on the floor.

“I knew right away,” he said, explaining that his own home had flooded the night before. “The water had receded already, but the lines on the wall looked like there had been about two feet.”

He remembers tears filling his eyes when he saw it. The flooding at his own house didn’t affect him as much as the sight of the muddy youth center. The furniture was ruined.

“‘Because, you know, it affects so many people – all of our students­ ­— and it’s just a really cool place to come,” Cochran said.

He and the maintenance staff took stock of what was there, what needed to be done and sent out a plea for help to church members. He wasn’t surprised by the response.

“We have a really good church here; it’s a mission-driven church,” Cochran said. “We started putting out an APB (all points bulletin) kind of thing, you know, who can help?”

One of the Sunday school teachers and some teenagers showed up to help that day as they took out the soggy furniture and cleared the space to prepare for cleaning.

The church scheduled a second work day for Thursday, and was expecting about 10 to 20 members to show up to start cleaning the mud and debris out of the space. There is also a work day scheduled for Saturday. It will take a few sessions to get the place back to normal, he said.

The Rev. Eddie Herring, the pastor of the church, said one of the church offices and its Scout hut was also flooded.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church outside Carrollton also had water problems Monday morning, though not as severe as those at the First United Methodist Church. Norma Rothschadl, education and youth director, received a phone call Monday morning, her day off, informing her that the classrooms in the basement of the building had water in them.

“I said ‘all right, I’ll be there in about an hour,’” Rothschadl said. “It wasn’t bad, especially in the scheme of what we were seeing on the news or whatever. ... It was just a little bit everywhere.”

She knew that school was out and so sent out a message to youth group members and their parents asking for help. Within an hour teens and their parents started showing up with wet vacuums, dry vacuums and other equipment ready to work. One family showed up with their vacuum after spending the night before cleaning 30 gallons of water out of their flooded home.

“Here was this family that had been up all night in their own home and then came out here to help,” Rothschadl said. “I tell you, it gives you great faith that your church is more than just about faith. It’s about family.”

She was even more impressed because it was teens who showed up to help. They could have stayed home and enjoyed an unexpected day off from school, but instead chose to show up and work in the church.

The group worked for probably three hours moving furniture and cleaning and got the job done in approximately three hours. She is just so grateful for the help. If she had done it herself, it would have taken days, she said. Just moving the furniture back into place the next day took Rothschadl the whole day by herself.

“The church is always there to help,” Rothschadl said. “It was their opportunity to give back to the church, which is what God calls us to do.”