Hundreds of volunteers help burned churches in west Alabama rebuild

Nearly a year after being thrust into the position of point man for the four churches that burned in west Alabama (see story, page 1), Gary Farley is exhausted but amazed.
  
“It’s been one of the most blessed years of my life,” he said. “It’s been such a neat thing to be at a point where you see God working miracles one after another.”
  
Since Feb. 7, 2006, Farley, director of missions for Pickens Baptist Association, has served as the point man for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM) to the four churches, meeting first weekly and now monthly with the churches’ pastors and laymen. He’s organized and accommodated volunteer teams and distributed donations from Baptists across the state to the four rural churches, all predominantly black. 
 
 “The thing that has really impressed the pastors and their people are the way Alabama Baptists can mobilize resources,” Farley said. 
  
As a result, he’s “amazed” at the way the churches have been able to bounce back:
  
• Though the inside of Dancy First Baptist Church near Aliceville was a total loss, the congregation got back into its building in July 2006, a mere five months after the fire. Pickens Association churches fed and housed volunteer teams from Baptist churches around the state that gutted and renovated the interior of the church. 
  
• Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church near Boligee broke ground on its property Jan. 7 and has poured footings for its new building. The proposed facility — twice the size of the church’s original building, which burned to the ground — will include a sanctuary, fellowship hall and library room intended for use as a community outreach tool. Church members currently worship in a mobile chapel provided by the SBOM.
  
• The congregation of Spring Valley Baptist Church near Emelle, which suffered smoke damage, got back in its building at the end of the summer. In the wake of the fire, a church member was given a scholarship to Birmingham-Southern College (BSC) as a gift to Spring Valley Baptist from the school. BSC gave money to each of the burned churches in response to the arrest of the three young arsonists who met as students at BSC. The scholarship recipient, Demetrius Foy, now serves as interim pastor of Spring Valley, according to Farley.
  
• The congregation of Galilee Baptist Church in Panola, whose building burned to the ground, is nearing the completion of its new building on land closer to the center of town than its original site. The building — a roughly 10,000-square-foot metal-frame building — will house its sanctuary and educational space. A team of about 50 volunteers from several Baptist churches in north Alabama blitzed the church Jan. 13 and began framing up the interior of the building, sections of which will be two-story. 
 
Volunteer efforts will continue through March, and according to Farley, church members hope to be worshiping in their new building by spring. They currently worship in a mobile chapel provided by the SBOM. 
  
“It’s a marvelous story of how God has opened doors for them,” Farley said, noting that several companies have committed to offer professional services and supplies either free or at drastically reduced prices for the construction of the replacement facility. The congregation hopes to be debt-free when it moves into its new building, valued at $1 million. 
  
“I’m amazed at how quickly and how well these churches have been able to come back. I attribute that to Alabama Baptists,” Farley said.
  
Tommy Puckett, state disaster relief coordinator through the SBOM, said Farley’s work between the SBOM and the affected churches was a “very positive aspect” of state Baptists’ response. “And when the churches affected called out for help, our volunteers responded from all different parts of the state. To me, that’s a God thing.”