POMARIA, S.C. — A house of worship in Pomaria had fallen into disrepair leaving morale at its lowest within the congregation. But now they are seeing things in a new light.
“It was a difficult task at first and to see that and the members were discouraged,” said Pastor Gary Dent of St. James AME Church.
He stepped into his current role at the church in September and began working to connect with the community to bring the church back.
“We had and had a myriad of challenges. As you can imagine, after COVID-19 we had financial challenges," he said. "We had structural challenges, leadership challenges but, more importantly, we had a hole in the roof and most importantly we had major foundation problems."
With prayer, love, and support, their church has been able to start construction.
“We were inundated with love from not only our AME brothers and sisters but also inundated with love from our Lutheran community, and our United Methodist faith community, and one pastor actually referenced the structural challenge we're having at our church in his sermon and that’s when the community support grew organically,” Dent said.
The church had a goal of $30,000 and has since blown past that thanks to the help of Bethlehem Lutheran Church. They held a Boston butt sale that raised over $11,000 for the church, pushing them over their goal.
“It's a very fascinating way to see the hand of God working almost in a supernatural way," he said.
They are expected to re-enter the church on Aug. 20.