A fire in the rain…

Sunset church burns during torrential storms

By Ralph Hardin

A Times Staff Feature

A little after 1 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, my wife and I finally got hungry enough for me to venture out in the monsoon- like storms that by that point had dumped nearly 10 inches of rain on Crittenden County in search of sustenance — namely some fried chicken from Marion Marketplace.

I waded out to my truck and headed down the road on the short but water-logged trip to the store. I was not alone.

Many wives, it seemed had also sent their husbands out in search of fried chicken (it’s really good fried chicken, if you’ve never had it).

So, I waited in line with all the other dripping husbands as they worked to fill the orders. After about 10 minutes or so, someone new joined the line and said, “Something’s burning.”

And you could definitely get a whiff of something, and it was not fried chicken. It wasn’t that “clean” burning smell you get from like a campfire or a grill either.

Well, a few minutes later I was headed out of the store with my 8-piece dark in tow, being careful not to get it wet.

The smell hit me strong right as I walked out the door.

Whatever was burning was close. There wasn’t smoke in the air but that charred scent was heavy.

About the time I reached my truck, two fire trucks zoomed by, lights and sirens on, headed north along the I-55 Service Road. Since that was on the way back top my house, I went that way as well and saw a huge roiling cloud of dark gray smoke off in the distance — but not too much of a distance. I turned off toward “Old Marion” and could still see the billowing smoke above the houses in my neighborhood, but it was not until I actually pulled into my driveway that I saw the fire.

So, I live in the last house at the end of a dead-end street.

Then it’s a ditch, a field, and then the Town of Sunset.

Right across the field, I could see Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church engulfed in flames.

While I have never actually attended a service at Pleasant Grove MBC, I am not entirely unfamiliar with them. You see, back during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, they refused to shut down their regular Sunday services.

With regulations at the time limiting how many people you could have under one roof, they simply did away with the roof, by having outdoor worship services. And they did not skimp on the worship, like, at all.

For hours each Sunday, there would be preaching and singing and more preaching and more singing. We couldn’t always make out the preacher’s sermon but the music traveled all the way across that field. We would be out in the yard weeding the flower bed or playing badminton (we played a lot of badminton during the pandemic) or whatever and we could definitely feel the spirit moving from that congregation.

So it was with a heavy heart that I snapped a few photos and then proceeded to watch the flames boil out of the church roof.

Over the next several hours I would occasionally go out and look from by driveway to see that firefighters were still on the scene. You might think that nothing would burn as wet as everything was but that ought to give you an idea of just how powerful fire is.

As for the church and its members, I hope they have a speedy recovery. And in the meantime, I already know they don’t need a church building to have church, so in the long run they are going to be just fine.

Photoby Ralph Hardin