Grandma Turns In Alabama Church Arsonists
Alabama churches have been burning. Again. Three churches were vandalized and set on fire beginning on January 1, 2008.
Every couple of years, congregations in Alabama are disrupted by a string of fires. The last time it happened, two years, ago, the culprits were college kids from Birmingham. This time, the two young men are self-professed Satan worshippers.
Usually when the fires hit the state’s Christian community, they are set at rural, small churches which abound state-wide. These out-of-the-way churches serve the small communities, and traffic around them is close to non-existent at night. The location is what makes them such targets. It also means that these churches bring in barely enough money to pay their pastor, much less repair or rebuild the damaged property.
I’ve got to hand to this grandmother. She refused to be cowed by her grandson and his alleged friend-from-hell, and turned them in to the police. According to the Montgomery Advertiser, Geoffrey Parquette and James Clark, both 21, were arrested after a housekeeper found a cross in Parquette’s room. She reported it to his grandmother, who then searched his room and found other stolen items from the churches.
The three churches that were burned and vandalized were the Greater Peace and Goodwill AME Church in Crawford, the Greater Bethelpore Baptist Church in Smiths Station, and Woodland Baptist Church in the Ladonia community. A fourth church, Concord Baptist, had satanic graffiti painted in it. One graffiti message stated, “Teach children to worship Satan!!”
The arrests have set minds at ease across small churches everywhere, but the congregations effected have a lot of work ahead of them. Please keep those churches in your prayers as they begin cleaning and rebuilding.
I live in Alabama, so let me know if you add these churches or the boys to your prayer list. I will pass along any messages to the appropriate people.
If you have a prayer request or praise you would like to share, leave me a comment or use the contact link in my profile. The latest prayer request left by a reader can be seen here.
Image Source: Jay Reeves, Montgomery Advertiser
christian, Alabama church, church arson, arson arrests, church burning, prayer request
January 10th, 2008 at 5:55 am
[...] also canceled the policies of some black churches during a rash of arson cases in the [...]
January 11th, 2008 at 10:37 am
Sorry to hear about churches being burnt, that too in a Christian country. i read about it in my newspapaer.
Here our churches are also burnt and Christians persecuted by Christ haters.
January 16th, 2008 at 5:26 am
I pray to God that burning of Churches should not happen in future and I ask the Saviour to bless all in the world that they share love and peace with all.
December 27th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Please pray for me to find a good job soon.