VAN WERT — Members of a church that was broken into with its sound and video equipment stolen are using the crime against them to teach a lesson from the Bible.
First Friends Church Pastor Paul Hamrick told members to practice what he preaches by sharing the incident with members of the church while using it as a lesson.
Pastor Hamrick said in services in the weeks before the break-in he spoke about the trials and tribulations of life while expressing some can be tough but how a person handles those is what matters.
“I just let people know no matter what happens keep your eyes in the right place,” he said. “We can’t chose what happens to us but we can choose how we react.”
The church is small, fewer than 50 members, but all came in willing to perform a few extra hymns because the sound system was missing. It was a lesson in improvising, Hamrick said.
The crime was discovered Sept. 25, and it marked the second time in several months someone has stolen from the church. The previous time, someone stole a large-screen television from the children’s ministry, along with a DVD player and sound bar.
The crimes hit the church hard because insurance does not cover all the expense. The church has a $1,000 deductible and had to raise money to replace stolen equipment.
Hamrick said he believes whoever broke into the church is facing some kind of battle on his or her own such as a heroin addiction.
The church works with drug addicts and recovering addicts so Hamrick and its members are familiar with people struggling with addiction. He spoke to some people in the drug community the church has helped asking for help and someone did return part of the sound equipment, he said.
Still, Hamrick expects church members to have to pay $1,000 to get back to a sound and video system that operates as it did before the burglary.
Hamrick has asked church members to pray for the thief and should the person be an addict that the person receive help.
The church is now installing a video security system. The church building is more than 100 years old, so Hamrick had deadbolt locks put on the doors and plans to eventually replace old wood doors with more secure metal doors.
Someone outside the church already has made a $200 donation toward the $1,000 deductible, the pastor said.
Hamrick said the church will survive and the crime will test its members but he is more concerned about the use of illegal drugs, especially heroin that leads people to steal from a church. He said society has a greater struggle with that than his church faced.
