Anita Campbell
County Reporter
The First United Methodist Church of Warsaw was vandalized twice during the past week causing very costly damage to the buildings and the church vehicles. The most recent event was on Friday at approximately 3:00 PM. The destruction was discovered by UMC Pastor Loren Whetsell when he went to the church at 5:00 PM to check on the windows of the church bus.
“A storm was blowing in and I wanted to make sure that the plastic we had placed on the bus was secure,” said Whetsell. “I noticed that the window to the food pantry had been removed so I went to the front door of the church and I could see there had been someone inside. I called the Warsaw Police Department and waited for them to arrive.”
The WPD went through the church with flashlights since the storm knocked out the power. They discovered that someone had set off several fire extinguishers in the church basement and did some major damage to the Sunday School rooms and Fellowship Hall.
Different rooms were vandalized with supplies and other materials thrown about the rooms. Food was taken from the kitchen and food pantry and tossed around. The vandals opened every cabinet and every door and pulled out kitchen utensils then poured liquid detergent and hand sanitizers everywhere. They took food from the Blessing Box and threw mayonnaise, rice, beans and all sorts of food stuff on the floor. The vandals also took chocolate syrup and spread it all over walls in the basement of the church.
In the upstairs sanctuary, the vandals went into the balcony and threw CD's and other equipment across the sanctuary. The altar was damaged and mayonnaise was spread all over the open Bible on the altar.
The fire extinguishers damaged almost every room except the sanctuary. In the nursery countless toys were dumped and sprayed with the extinguisher powder.
Toilets on both floors of the building were clogged with items to the point that they are unusable. The vandals threw a chair at a television located in the basement and it was destroyed.
UMC has hired ServPro to start the massive cleanup. Pastor Whetsell has contacted the Belton UMC and they are sending all of their Vacation Bible School materials to replace those damaged by the vandals.
While an exact damage estimate has not been established, church officials are anticipating the damage will cost approximately $50,000 to repair.
“It is costing the church $2,000 a day to clean up the mess,” said Whetsell. “The members of the congregation feel violated and are saddened that someone would create such a mess.”
Two suspects have been questioned by authorities and the investigation is ongoing. The suspects are minors so the case is being handled by juvenile authorities. At press time, no arrests have been made in either of the vandalism cases.
The First United Methodist Church supports the Salvation Army’s program to feed children during the summer when they are not in school. Over 400 children per week are given sack lunches to replace the free meal that they do not receive from school. Whetsell said that they plan to have the area cleaned up so they can receive the food and distribute it as usual this week.
The Soup and More program that operates out of the basement of the church will be closed this week but there are plans to have the program up and running again by next week.
Vacation Bible School will go on as planned starting on July 24 at 9:00 AM and running until Noon for children 3 years to those who just completed fifth grade.
“This setback will not stop us from serving our community,” said Whetsell.
Sunday services were held at the First United Methodist Church of Warsaw; however, members did not go downstairs since the fumes from the fire extinguishers were still in the air.
This destructive act was not the first the Methodists have endured during the week. On Saturday, July 8, unknown persons broke all the windows out of the church van and destroyed three windows on the church bus.
A window was broken near the food pantry in the basement of the church and food was stolen from the Soup and More food pantry. The vandals took the food to the church bus and sat in the bus to eat the stolen food.
“We give food to anyone who needs it,” said Sarah Wynn, secretary of the church. “All anyone has to do is just ask.”
Lifelong UMC member LeRoy Whitaker was shocked by the vandalism.
“There is no excuse for this sort of behavior,” said Whitaker. “Someone is falling down on the job and I think it is the parents. Children have to be taught the difference between right and wrong. It is just very sad that a church whose members work so hard in this community to give back are disrespected this way.”
