UPDATE: Pastors receive funds to rebuild churches

UPDATE: The pastors of Mt. Pleasant, Greater Union and St. Mary baptist churches have received the funding raised to rebuild their sanctuaries.

Pastor Gerald Toussaint of Mt. Pleasant, said the pastors didn’t know how much their churches would receive.

“I know that we’re good now, to do what we got to do,” he said. “So thanks America, thanks to the whole who gave. We just want to thank you.”

Pastor Kyle Sylvester of St Mary said “it’s amazing.

“No one would have thought it would’ve reached that height. But its out of our hands,” he said.

Sylvester said it’s hard to see an empty lot where his church once stood.

“Its an eerie feeling. To see a structure that once stood, no longer there,” he said.

But with the bad has come some good, he added.

“We’ll seek to meet the needs of the community more, before we didn’t have the facilities to be able to do what we wanted,” he said. “What we have now, we’re able to do more, so I thank God for that.”

Although each church will have to be completely rebuilt, the pastors say they all learned a valuable thing.

“Like a guy said tonight, people just care, and that’s a good feeling to know we live in a world where people still care for each other,” Sylvester said.

Here’s our story from earlier today:

The process to rebuild three churches destroyed by an arsonist in St. Landry Parish is underway.

Tonight, the churches will receive the funds raised by private donations and public contributions to a crowd-funding account. The donations poured in after the story got national attention.

Clean-up is well underway at Mt. Pleasant, Greater Union and St. Mary Baptist churches. The funds they’re receiving today will help them start to rebuild.

KATC TV3’s Katie Easter visited all three church sites today. She’ll be attending the service tonight in Lake Charles where the funds will be distributed.

The demolition process is complete at Greater Union, while the walls of Mt. Pleasant are still standing. At St. Mary, they’re working with an architect to address some drainage issues.

Each church will receive nearly $900,000 to assist in rebuilding their churches.