Volunteers from Philly help Plant Street Baptist rebuild from tornado

When the EF-2 tornado ripped through Selma on Jan. 12, it reduced Plant Street Baptist Church’s building to rubble.

“It was a total loss. We had to knock down what was left,” Pastor Larry Johnson said.

But now, in the place where once was devastation, a new church building is being built with funding help from the Long Term Recovery Committee and labor help from a group of volunteers from Philadelphia.

The volunteers came to Selma last week to help build the new church in east Selma. A dozen of the volunteers are with Philadelphia Interfaith Building Community and several others were with White Men Against Racial Injustice.

“For the last 27 years they have built houses for communities globally from El Salvador, to Katrina, wherever there have been these storms, they have gone and done this work,” said Lawrence Wofford, Long Term Recovery Committee member and head of the local NAACP.  

Wofford met members of the group last year during the Bridge Crossing Jubilee and they began talking about helping rebuild.

“After they found out about the storms, they said they wanted to come back and do some work here in Selma. And here they are,” Wofford said.

The local NAACP did not have any money to donate, he said, so their contribution to helping rebuild the community is arranging for these volunteers to come to Selma and help. 

The 12 accomplished a lot in one week, Wofford said. A couple are architects by trade and were able to ensure the strength and rigidity of the building. 

Wofford said they plan to come back to help more.

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“One thing they promised is to do all the landscaping of this building once it’s finished,” he said. The projected completion date is early January. 

Pastor Johnson said there has been an overwhelming outpouring of help and support from all over for the cleanup process as well as the rebuilding. He said people “are constantly sending donations to help rebuild, but mostly they’re praying for us.”

He said he is on the phone a lot with people from all over the country checking on him and the church.

“They’re sending encouraging words and letting us know they are still praying for us.” 

 The new church will not be rebuilt to only be used on Sundays, Johnson said.

“We are going to help the community reconnect here,” Johnson explained. He said he wants to bring the seniors and young adults together. 

In the new larger and more modern building, there will room for that, he said. One large office room he said, “we will be running a school out of here, that’s why it’s so big.”  

Johnson pointed to another large room “The seniors will be able to come two days out of the week and be here and know that they are not forgotten.”

Both Wofford and Johnson express their gratitude to the volunteers and to the Long Term Recovery Committee. They also thank the people who continue to keep Plant Street Baptist Church in their prayers.