"I prayed every night, let me live to see this day."
SINGING "CAME THROUGH THE STORM AND THE RAIN" CHEERS
"This is the day of celebration."
A day of joy, a day of tears, and a day 20 months in the making for Mt. Peria Baptist Church in Ringgold.
"I've just been so excited, the closer it gets, the less I slept, so when I didn't sleep, I prayed." 80 year old Betty Green is a longtime member of Mt. Peria, one that never left.
"Some days I would come down here and it just didn't seem like it was getting built fast enough for me because I was in a hurry. When you get my age you don't know what's going to happen."
"What makes me feel so good is the way people are working together. We came together from sun up to sundown," says Pastor Jimmy Ingram.
This weekend the church is standing again. A testament to a congregation that never wavered, finding strength in each other, and finding help from unexpected places.
"We had various donations given to us. People from all walks of life didn't even know us. This is what is so exciting. They just read about us in the newspaper and they came to our rescue," says Ingram.
A church reborn, with a growing congregation.
"There's a bright side somewhere and with this new church we've got and new members coming in like that. It's going be a bright side."
"We are just all together. It's just not for the white and the black it's for all of us because when we get to heaven it's not going to be no black and white church, we are all going to be together with the Lord," says Green.
"We are expecting to go outside of the church not just stay on the inside. We come here to worship, be we are going to leave here to serve," adds Ingram.
