SARDIS, Miss. — Children who were playing with fireworks could be to blame for a July Fourth fire that destroyed a large part of a North Mississippi church.
The fire heavily damaged the Anointed Prophetic Ministries Church in the town of Sardis. Members of the church said that, though the fire was intense, it was not enough to stop them from carrying out their mission.
“I really didn’t have any clue of how bad and what was really going on. I was hoping that it was a mistake that it wasn’t actually the building,” said Apostle Eric Martin of Anointed Prophetic Ministries.
Firefighters worked to put out the flames. When Martin arrived at the building, he saw a building in ruins.
“You can see where it burned the wall and actually penetrated and then they had to use the water, and the water has done quite a bit of damage,” said Martin.
Martin says children playing with fireworks could be to blame for causing the fire.
“One of the people who called me from the community said it was fireworks,” said Martin.
Anointed Prophetic Ministries, which has a congregation of about 50 people, has been a part of the Sardis community for two decades.
They were hoping to build a school here.
“This was a really important room. We wanted to renovate and build classrooms back here,” said Martin.
Even though extensive repairs will be needed, the church will continue to serve the community.
“Yes, repairs will have to be done and we’ll do them, but if I feel as though if we shutdown we limit the power of God within the community,” said Martin.
Martin says despite the damage left behind at his church, he feels God’s work will prevail.
“One of my favorite statements is if I can’t serve God, if I’m not preaching, if I’m not giving my all to God then you might as well take me out of this world because this is my lifelong mission,” said Martin.
Nobody was hurt in the fire. Church leaders say a damage estimate isn’t known at this time, but the church did have insurance.
