Bremen church community making progress on missionary hall

BREMEN, Ky. (WFIE) - As night turned to day on Dec. 11, 2021, Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church parishioner Harold Morris could only bear witness to the devastation.

“It was frightening if you were here after it happened, because everything was flattened out,” Morris said.

Both Morris and Wayne Drake knew the church would need to be rebuilt, a daunting task in the middle of destruction. Once the missionary groups started to flock to western Kentucky, they knew they’d get the help they would need.

“During that time there was 240 people, 52 different churches from nine different states,” Morris said.

Groups like Constructors for Christ, a group based out of Georgia, came to Bremen for one reason: to serve.

“Things have changed since the trees got their leaves on, people have picked up and cleaned up,” Morris said. “It does look better now than it did a few months ago.”

Nearly one year later, the new missionary hall has taken shape.

“The spirit will be the same, I think, once we get our feet on this property, we’ll be able to worship like we would before,” parishioner Wayne Drake said.

Missionary groups came and left, but Drake, Morris and their fellow parishioners stayed. Even if they don’t have Bremen on their mailing address, they still knew their home was there.

“I don’t live in Bremen, I live just out[side] of Bremen,” Morris said. “But Bremen is the type of community that basically most everybody knows everyone else.”

When this building is finished, it’s on to rebuilding the church. The same group of people shows up every day to rebuild what they physically lost, but know that their relationships haven’t changed.

“I personally don’t know if I would want to be anywhere else,” Morris said. “This is my church, this is my church. And the building is not the church, the people are the church.”