Communities and groups have come out to offer assistance to many of the places ravaged by the tornado on Easter Sunday.
One of the places that was considered a total loss that day was Riverside Baptist Church. The church had humble beginnings, and although the building was destroyed, the pastor and congregation are optimistic and doing everything they can to rebuild.
“We had our first service in our building with no pews, no carpet, and no ceiling on an Easter Sunday morning,” stated Pastor Jerry Griffin. “How cliché it is that on an Easter Sunday it was destroyed.”
City of Refuge from Lucedale, Mississippi, came up to assist the church with cleaning up the damage.
“They’re taking everything apart and cleaning everything up,” stated Griffin. “All they asked for was the material that’s in it.”
The group was truly a blessing to the church and helped clear away multiple trees and debris from the property. The church is grateful for the assistance of both the group and local assistance.
“Tommy Scott and Farm Bureau were here within a day of when it happened to assess the damage and get us taken care of,” said Griffin. “Our supervisors have been great through all this. Joel Speed has been out here every day to help and even brought his tractor out to help move trees one day. Troy Smith came down from the state to see everything. We’ve just had a tremendous outpouring of help and love from the community.”
Now, the church intends to rebuild, and the only need they truly have is funding.
“Now that we’re finishing up the cleaning phase, we’re going to be starting the donation phase so we can raise up enough money to rebuild,” explained Griffin. “We love the Lord, the community, and the people. God willing, we will be right back in this place.”
With all the devastation caused by tornados in the past few months, Clarke County is blessed that it has not suffered any loss of life.
Anyone who would like to make a contribution to help the church can send the money to Citizen’s National Bank and put it to the care of Riverside Baptist Church.
