CAYCE, S.C. — Arson destroyed the house of worship for Trinity Baptist Church in Cayce. Now the church has risen from the ashes and is ready for its new space to continue serving the community.
After 16 months of trials and tribulations, Trinity Baptist has finally been restored to what it once was.
Pastor Eddie Coakley said a 2 a.m. call he received in February of 2022 is something he will never forget.
"By the time they called me, the fire department had already put the fire out. They were like, 'Hey, you can come down and see this, but there's nothing to see.' They were assessing the damage, and it was just kind of surreal," Coakley said. "The firefighters did such a great job, but there was really nothing they could do about getting the smoke from coming into the sanctuary and spreading to everything, and so everything basically in there was gutted and redone."
The fire started after a man tossed a brick through a window in the church towards their prayer room between the preschool and sanctuary.
Pam Scheller has been a church member for over 30 years and has seen it through many ups and downs.
"Even before COVID and the fires, things just happen, we've seen people come and go, and come back," Scheller said.
However, she said she'd never seen anything like the congregation's reaction to the church fire. People came together and worshipped in another church building on the property instead. The original sanctuary can fit 1,000 people or more, and the church's space through the rebuild was made for about 300.
Members of the church, like Mark Busbee, met in groups to help restore the worship space.
"We had the opportunity, a number of us, to help work on the church and rebuild some stuff," Busbee said. "We had teams grow closer together, and the church family grow closer together too."
Although the building underwent many changes on the outside, Pastor Coakley said the inside was the most significant transformation of all.
"It's really not cliche, the building is just a building, and what we do and who we are, the people are what really matters," Coakely said.
The man who started the fire was arrested the following day after it was put out. He is facing hate crime charges and was not given bail. The church said the case has yet to have its day in court, and they continue praying for the man charged.
