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A fire destroyed two mobile classrooms at a church on Aug. 31, 2025.
PHOENIX – A pastor is asking the Phoenix community for help after a fire caused $12,000 in property damage at Life Changers Global Ministries, located near 7th Street and Broadway Road, on Sunday night.
What we know:
The fire destroyed a brand-new mobile building, which was meant to serve as classrooms for preschoolers, and a place for the large homeless population in this area.
Phoenix Fire Department is investigating the cause of the Aug. 31 fire.
The backstory:
Pastor Dr. Earl Newton and his wife took $6,000 out of their savings and forfeited their church salary, until they had $12,000. The $12,000 was all this church had.
This money was enough to build mobile classrooms for preschoolers displaced by upheaval in the Roosevelt School District, and a place for the homeless in the neighborhood to shower and get supplies.
Dig deeper:
The pastor believes the fire was started by the very people he was trying to help.
“If you look all up and down, you’ll see homeless people, homeless encampments,” he said. “It’s crazy to me that this building was brought here for the homeless population only to potentially have someone in that population set it ablaze.”
“All they started saying was ‘Pastor the church is on fire, the church is on fire,’” Pastor Newton said.
A video captured the billowing flames that suddenly broke out Sunday night, leaving Pastor Newton’s brand-new building, his savings, and vision in a heap of smoldering ashes.
“It’s a low-income community— not everyone works, so we saw this as an opportunity to still be able to add to the community through our preschool and our outreach. It was just really like all of our hopes and going up in flames,” he said.
Over the past two decades, Pastor Newton said there’s constant loitering from the homeless community in the back alley behind the church. He suspects that a moment of carelessness might be to blame. But for now, all he can do is start from scratch and try to rebuild.
“I stood on the side of the church, and I leaned against the brick and, to keep from crying, I just said, ‘Lord I trust you,’” Pastor Newton said.
A fire destroyed two mobile classrooms at a church on Aug. 31, 2025.
Map of where the church is located
What you can do:
The Valley can help this church, which has been here for 60 years, raise $12,000 through their GoFundMe account.
You can also donate through CashApp at $LifeChangersGM, Givelify at Life Changers Global Ministries and on Venmo at @Lifechangersgm.
If you can’t donate money, they are asking for volunteers and supplies to help clean up on Saturday, Sept. 13.
If you have extra gloves, shovels, or a truck to haul it all away, you can reach out to Pastor Newton at 602-214-2771.
The Source: This information was gathered from FOX 10’s Ashlie Rodriguez after she interviewed Pastor Dr. Earl Newton on Sept. 3, and she used information from the Phoenix Fire Department.