Stranger steps forward with blessing after vandals ravage local church

HOW TO HELP• Donations can be deposited at any Suntrust Bank location to a special fund for the church. Just ask the bank to deposit your donation into the "Donation Fund for Valley Memorial Baptist" and give this account number: 1000178850060.• Or mail to: Valley Memorial Baptist Church, 614 Browns Ferry Road, Chattanooga, TN, 37419• Phone: 423-821-5499Source: Valley Memorial Baptist Church

photo The children's playroom was vandalized at Valley Memorial Baptist Church.

Shards of broken glass crunched under Dorothy Woody's feet as she walked from room to room in Valley Memorial Baptist Church on Monday.

Vandals tore through the small church on Browns Ferry Road sometime Saturday night or early Sunday morning. The vandal or vandals used something -- a hatchet, or maybe an ax -- to rip holes in the walls, smash furniture to pieces, overturn pews and pull a water fountain off the wall, flooding parts of the church.

Woody toured the damage for about 20 minutes Monday. Craft supplies scattered in the children's room. A urinal ripped out of the wall in the men's bathroom. Books and framed diplomas crushed in the pastor's study. A locked wooden box full of private prayer requests pried open and searched. Pages from hymnals ripped out and strewn about.

"It's just shocking," she said.

But then, as she stood in the rubble, the church's door creaked open and a man walked in. He had seen the damage on the news, he said, and he wanted to help. He handed Woody a thick stack of folded $100 bills. Then he shrugged off her thanks, declined to give his name, and left. She had never seen him before.

With tears in her eyes and trembling hands, Woody slowly counted the bills out loud. One, two, three, four, five ... 11, 12 ... 18, 19, 20. Twenty $100 bills.

"God comes through," she whispered through tears. "You can destroy our building, but you can't destroy our church and our God."

The money is needed, she added. The church has a congregation of about 75, and many are senior citizens who can't afford to give much more than their tithe, Woody said. In fact, the church had been selling pecans recently to try to raise money to fix their steeple, which was damaged in a storm. For every pound of pecans sold, the church got $1.

Woody was planning to do the same thing to pay the church's insurance deductible. But that was before a stranger handed her $2,000.

"Now we won't have to," she said.

Pastor Horace Crawford guessed the vandals caused around $100,000 in damage, although he wasn't sure. Church members milled around Sunday morning, walking and talking and processing -- but no one sat down for a formal service. Instead, they gave interviews to police.

Some members came back Sunday night and met in the fellowship hall for prayer -- it's a separate building across the parking lot from the church, and the vandal only broke a couple windows there.

Crawford said the congregation will meet in the hall while the church is repaired.

photo The water fountain was pulled from the wall at Valley Memorial Baptist Church.

"We're just bewildered," Crawford said. "We can't understand why anybody would want to hurt their neighbors and friends and destroy the building."

He's been pastoring the church for 20 years. The building was equipped with surveillance video cameras, which were damaged during the attack. Crawford turned the camera footage over to police and hopes the footage reveals the suspect or suspects.

"We don't know of anyone who is angry with the church," Woody said. "I think they're just angry with God."

Chattanooga police said Monday that they did not have any new information about the case. Crawford said he will try to move on and lead his congregation forward -- but it's hard.

"I could hardly sleep at all last night," he said. "I just couldn't get it off my mind, how they ruined our little church like that."

Contact staff writer Shelly Bradbury at 423-757-6525 or sbradbury@timesfreepress.com with tips or story ideas.

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