Explosion spares church from attack by ‘satanist’ By Robert P. Mills The Presbyterian Layman Volume 34, Number 1 Posted January 24, 2001 Co-pastors Allen and Deborah Kemp survey damage after fire. “I heard and felt a very large boom. It literally shook my house and rattled the windows. Since I was so tired and sleepy, I fell right back to sleep,” said the Rev. Allen Kemp of the sound that woke him just before 1:00 a.m., Nov. 10. Fifteen minutes later, Kemp was fully awake. A police officer had come to his door and told him that his church was on fire. Police soon arrested and charged with arson a man whom they said was connected to a known satanic group. Kemp and his wife, Deborah, are co-pastors of Suffern Presbyterian Church in Suffern, N.Y., not far from New York City. The fire severely damaged the church’s fellowship hall. But the classrooms, offices and sanctuary were spared. And that, Kemp told The Layman in a telephone interview, was the result of a miracle. Praying for protection A little more than a week before the arsonist’s attack, a member of the congregation, who had been praying for the church, warned Deborah Kemp that “the church is under satanic attack from the outside. It seems to be against the property.” “So we prayed about that,” Allen Kemp said. Then came the 12:40 a.m. explosion that awakened not only Kemp, but also neighbors up to a block away, including an assistant fire chief, who left his house to investigate. A miracle After he heard the news, Kemp and the police officer walked to the church, where they saw flames coming out a fellowship hall window. But, Kemp said, the flames “looked strange. They were not blasting out, but were lapping out and were orange-red, like a fire in a woodstove when the airflow is dampened.” Entering the building, Kemp said he was surprised that, despite the thick smoke and intense heat, there was very little flame. He also noticed something else. “I heard a loud hissing noise and some of the smoke felt damp, almost like steam. From my experience as a volunteer fireman, I concluded that a fireman must have broken through a door on the other side of the building and knocked down the fire with a hose.” But when he walked around the building, he realized that the fire department had just arrived, and had yet to enter the building. Exploding extinguisher did its job. Only after the fire had been put out did investigators determine what had happened. The explosion, which first alerted residents of the neighborhood to the fire, was caused by the rupturing of a wall-mounted fire extinguisher. As Kemp explained, fire investigators later identified where the fire had started by noting the charring on the ceiling rafters in front of the broken window. The fire extinguisher, Kemp said, “blew out at exactly the angle needed to hit the hottest fire on the ceiling and put it out, keeping the fire from going into the classrooms upstairs and moving across into our offices. “A literal miracle. Praise God!” Timeline Reconstructing the fire’s timeline, Kemp estimated that if the extinguisher had not exploded, awakening nearby residents, the fire would have burned undetected for at least another 15 minutes. That probably would have resulted in the destruction of not only the fellowship hall, but also the church offices and sanctuary, he said. The fire was confined to the stage area of the fellowship hall, but, Kemp said, “It heated the main room enough to melt the mini-blinds off all the windows and the plastic clock off the back wall opposite the stage.” He estimated it will take several months, and $75,000 to $100,000 to repair the fellowship hall, which was used during the week by the Boy Scouts, Alcoholics Anonymous and YMCA dance classes. For the past nine years, it had also been the home of the Spanish Pentecostal Church, which estimated it lost $20,000 in furnishings, resources and musical equipment. ‘Satan Rules’ Within 48 hours of the fire, Suffern police arrested 28-year-old Andy Gardner, an artist and part-time security guard. He was charged with felony arson and burglary. According to his mother, who met privately with the Kemps, Gardner has schizophrenia and recently had stopped taking his medication. According to police, he belongs to a group of known Satan worshipers. Satanic graffiti on church wall. In fact, he became a suspect because the words “Satan Rules the Earth,” which were written in black marker on the outside of the church, were recognized as being in his style. In the five days prior to the arson attack, two nearby churches and a synagogue had been vandalized with satanic graffiti. Investigators of the Suffern fire suggested that Gardner “performed a satanic ritual” on the fellowship hall stage before he set the fire and fled. He has since been deemed incompetent to stand trial and remanded to a mental institution. ‘A difficult battle’ The arson attack generated significant coverage in the New York City media, including two television stations that broadcast portions of the Sunday morning service immediately following the fire. “We were given opportunity to give testimony to the grace of Jesus Christ to millions around the New York City area,” Kemp said. An hour before the service, church leaders learned that the arsonist had been arrested. The news was shared with the congregation during worship. “Right after we announced it,” Kemp said, “we unfurled a long paper banner one of our elders had made that morning. It read ‘Jesus Christ is Lord of the Earth.’ Then we broke into exuberant praise and worship, singing over and over the chorus of God is Good All the Time.” The arrest may not end the story. The intercessor who first suggested praying for the protection of the church has expressed concern that the attack is not over yet. And police detectives have told Kemp that other satanists are still active in the area. “I take heart when people tell me, ‘Well, you must be doing something right when Satan takes out a contract on your church,’” Kemp said, adding, “But it is a difficult battle. Pray for us.”

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