A church in middle Tennessee is picking up the pieces after being a target of vandalism.

On Friday, Feb. 2, staff walked into Luna Lane Church of Christ in Hendersonville, Tennessee, to find the church in complete disarray. 

“Someone has seriously vandalized our Church building. Our upstairs auditorium, nursery, lobby and restrooms have sustained great damage, and our downstairs fellowship hall is a great big mess. The basement fellowship hall and classrooms were also flooded as a result of the damage,” said the church in a correo on Facebook. “It’s so sad to see someone do this to our house of worship.”

Worship services on Feb. 4 were promptly cancelled. But last Saturday, the church announced it would reopen on Feb. 11.

“We still have work to do, but the building has been deep cleaned and available for use,” the church posted. “You’re welcome to attend.” 

Addressing the church on Feb. 12, Pastor Nick Raphael said, “God extended his hand . . . after what we’ve been through the past couple weeks.”

En una entrevista con WSMV4, Raphael said they have no clue why someone would target their church, noting nothing was stolen, only destroyed. 

“The human side of me was angry. Why would anybody do this to a small church? But as I thought about it, I realized when Jesus was hanging on that cross and being tortured to death, he said, ‘Father, forgive these people because they don’t know what they’re doing,’” said Raphael. “We are going to try our best to show forgiveness, even when something like this has happened.”

Even though a large portion of the church sustained significant damage, Preacher Raphael pointed out that whoever damaged the building did not touch the Bibles. 

“It touched everything else. But they didn’t touch the Bibles. I don’t know what that means. You have to figure it out for yourself. But it’s an interesting fact.”

Josh Shepherd contributed to this report, which was originally published at CHVN.

Journalist Colleen Houde is a news writer and on-air host at CHVN in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.