Church Recovering From Copper Theft

(Memphis)—Memphis Police are looking into who broke into a church and swiped thousands of dollars worth of copper.

Sunday  morning, the congregation of Calvary Chapel Memphis on Mamie, showed up for service, but found their place of worship had been ransacked.

“In the bathroom right here, you can see they tore out the walls to get to the copper upstairs” said Pastor Phillip Ferrell.

Plaster covers the floors at Calvary Chapel Memphis, the walls are ripped down to the beams. You can see from one room to the next. the chaos isn’t from a natural disaster,  overnight someone swiped thousands of dollars of copper from the church.

“To go through all the trouble that they went through, to go up in the attic and rip out the hot water heater, and ripping out the cables of the computers that we have for the neighborhood kids, it shows the desperation people have.” Said Ferrell.

Pastor Ferrell tells News Channel 3, the culprits broke in through a window, before they trashed  the church.

“This is where we come to the worship the Lord.” Said Ferrell.

It’s a theft that cuts deep , the church doesn’t have insurance, and for a while hasn’t been able to make its mortgage payments.  Bouncing back from thousands of dollars worth of damage is going to be tough.

“Being in a poor neighborhood, we do the best we can to make it.” Expressed Ferrell.

Pastor Ferrell says the theft is heartbreaking, not only for the church and neighborhood, but also the crooks.

“I pray for their hearts and their souls. That’s why we are here as a church try to reach people who are desperately hurting. “ said Ferrell.

Now members are cleaning up what pains them.

“You put a lot of trust and faith in Christ and say, Lord, help me get through this.” Said Ferrell.

If you would like to help Calvary Chapel Memphis, give the church a call at 901-318-4131.