Members of the Wetumpka First Presbyterian Church’s building and design team throw dirt during a groundbreaking ceremony Sunday for the new church. From left are Jon Lambert, Ashley Wilson, Rev. Jonathan Yarboro, Lee Anne Farris, Steve Russell of Russell Construction, Curt Johnson, Lee Borders, Chuck Jones of Goodwyn Mills Cawood and Toby Story of Russell Construction. The new sanctuary and offices for administration and education will take a year to complete, Yarboro said.
Rev. Jonathan Yarboro shows the First Presbyterian Church’s original sanctuary Bible from 1857 which survived January’s tornado. It was found opened to the 18th Psalm.
John David Law, 76, whose great-great grandparents were among the 19 founders of the First Presbyterian Church, still worships there. ‘The church is the people,’ he said. ‘Structures can always be rebuilt.’
Plaster from the First Presbyterian Church sanctuary which was destroyed by January’s tornado is still stuck between the pages of the church’s original sanctuary Bible from 1857.
Members of the Wetumpka First Presbyterian Church’s building and design team throw dirt during a groundbreaking ceremony Sunday for the new church. From left are Jon Lambert, Ashley Wilson, Rev. Jonathan Yarboro, Lee Anne Farris, Steve Russell of Russell Construction, Curt Johnson, Lee Borders, Chuck Jones of Goodwyn Mills Cawood and Toby Story of Russell Construction. The new sanctuary and offices for administration and education will take a year to complete, Yarboro said.
Rev. Jonathan Yarboro shows the First Presbyterian Church’s original sanctuary Bible from 1857 which survived January’s tornado. It was found opened to the 18th Psalm.
John David Law, 76, whose great-great grandparents were among the 19 founders of the First Presbyterian Church, still worships there. ‘The church is the people,’ he said. ‘Structures can always be rebuilt.’
Plaster from the First Presbyterian Church sanctuary which was destroyed by January’s tornado is still stuck between the pages of the church’s original sanctuary Bible from 1857.
Kenneth S. Boone
Wetumpka’s First Presbyterian Church has been an iconic presence since 1857 and will be rebuilt to look like the original.
It was miraculous nobody had accepted the Wetumpka First Presbyterian Church’s longstanding invitation to enter its unlocked sanctuary and pray on the afternoon of Jan. 19 when a tornado turned its 162-year-old walls and roof into kindling.
Just as remarkable was a first responder finding the church’s original sanctuary Bible from 1857, dry as ancient parchment and opened to the 18th Psalm, part of which says: “The earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken because He was wroth. … He brought me forth also into a large place; He delivered me because He delighted in me. … I was also upright before Him. … The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler and the horn of my salvation and my high tower.”
