Volunteer teams work to rebuild church that lost building to lightning strike

A little more than a year ago, Mount Olive Baptist Church in Pittsview faced a tragedy — the church building they’d met in since the 1860s burned to the ground after a lightning strike.

But this summer, they’re seeing progress toward a new place to meet — over two weeks in early June, Carpenters for Christ started the work to construct a new building for Mount Olive Baptist.

“We did the design work and the framing operation on the front end, and we helped guide the church through the process of using volunteers to do the work,” said Dave Tidwell, who leads the Carpenters for Christ team from Cherry Street Baptist Church in Attalla.

‘Shell shocked’

While on site, Tidwell’s team stayed at Seale Baptist Church. Teams from other organizations around Alabama and other states will come to Mount Olive Baptist over the coming months to continue the work, Tidwell said. Though not on site, he continues to coordinate the work.

Tidwell said initially, the small Mount Olive congregation was “shell shocked” to lose its historic building. But when teams started showing up to help, they were shocked in a different way, he said. “They didn’t know which way to turn after the fire, but God has provided so much. We told them we will stay with them through completion and recruit more help if needed.”