Five years removed from a tornado that swept through the community, destroyed the church’s sanctuary and damaged other buildings, Mt. Zion will break ground on a new church building this week.
Church members are calling it “The Miracle at Mt. Zion.”
The tornado broke out during the morning when 40 preschool children were in class in an adjacent church building. None of them were hurt.
The rebuild of the church has faced multiple obstacles, including spiking construction costs, Covid, the retirement of the senior pastor, and the deacon who was heading up the rebuilding project passed away from a heart attack.
Pastor Jason Medley said, “We’ve come to place where we were saying, ‘What do we do?” We asked God, ‘What do you want us to do?’”
What came next could only be described as God taking over — from providing, at zero cost to the church, a professional construction manager, free labor from experienced builders, and even drywall specialists from Missouri who offered a hand.
Rebuilding costs are being covered by insurance money and donations not only from church members but from others throughout the U.S.
In the midst of all the rebuilding, the church has grown, Preschool numbers have increased form 40 to 150 and there are 140 on a wait list. The church will be making more space with the rebuild.
And through the crisis, the church has been a blessing to others. It helped Freemont Baptist in Boaz after it was hit with a tornado and donated $15,000 to Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief for a fund to help victims of the 2021 west Kentucky tornadoes.