KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A KCK church vandalized overnight has the pastor and church members shaken up.
Police say the vandals caused more than $75,000 worth of damage. The vandalism took place overnight at Bethel Seventh Day Adventist Church in KCK.
The pastor here says he was expecting the damage to be bad, but what he saw brought tears to his eyes.
He wants those responsible for the damage to be caught, because if they are capable of causing this much damage to a place of worship, God only knows what they would do to a person.
“I expected it to be bad, but not to this degree,” says Bryan Mann, the pastor.
Mann has been the pastor here about a year. He says his head deacon called him Sunday morning when he saw what happened.
“This is God’s house, and to do the type of things that have been done here, and I’ve seen it before, but to take hours to do this type of damage, police say that this didn’t happen in 15 minutes or an hour; it took hours, even with multiple people,” adds Mann. “Who would have that much anger, and that much disregard?”
Besides the damage to the church itself, they have a food pantry that serves more than 100 families every month. That pantry was destroyed.
“When I walked in I actually just broke down in tears, because just to know the dedication they give, and the people it impacts, and to look at how it was trashed, it just brought tears to my eyes,” Mann says.
The church was supposed to have a food giveaway Tuesday, which now has to be held at their headquarters.
Mann says they are assessing the damage and working with insurance, but that this just motivates them to do more good to outweigh the evil.
“I don’t have anger toward them, you just pray for them,” Mann said. “It’s going to rally the church to be better, and to engage even more.”
The church is in need of donations of food and personal hygiene items. If you have any information on who did this, please call KCK police.
