Over $793,000 was stolen from an Elkin North Carolina church recently by internet scammers, money saved up over a decades time to build a new sanctuary.
The Elkin Valley Baptist Church, founded in 1884, has grown so much over the years that there was a need for a larger sanctuary to fit all its members in the North Elkin Drive building that has stood since 1954.
By September 2022, the church had raised the full amount needed for the project. And on Nov. 4, Elkin Valley Baptist Church received an email from Landmark construction, their builder, who provided them with payment instructions.
Following that email was a second one, which arrived on a Friday when the office building was not open, according to church leaders. A church representative replied to the second email without knowing it was a fabricated correspondence.
“The email looked just like it was from our builder. It gave instructions on how to pay the funds for the renovations. And so, basically, we followed those instructions,” Senior Pastor Johnny Blevins said.
The church later received a third email from the real builder requesting payments, and that is when they realized the second email was not from their builder.
“It was a fraudulent email that intercepted somehow and entered the email chain. The second email was from the criminal. The money was wired to a fraudulent account, and then the money was stolen from us.”
Blevins said the expected date for the renovations of the sanctuary to be completed has now been extended, which will directly impact his congregation.
“We had outgrown our previous sanctuary and since we are now meeting in a Christian Life Center, that center cannot be used to do other things that we need it for. We do a basketball league for children and many other things,” the pastor said, adding that his church averages 350 people every Sunday.
After finding out about the incident, Blevins reported the stolen money to the Elkin Police Department. The FBI is now investigating the incident.
“We were initially shocked, then saddened, angry. But, then, I guess, working through all that, we are now looking at the situation like, ‘now, where do we go from here?'” Blevins said. “We are keeping the faith. We have been hurt and angry, and this saddens us. But now, let’s put our faith into action and how can we move forward.”
Blevins hopes that his church will be able to have some or all of the funds recovered. But, he said whether or not that will happen is unknown.
” We are going to continue to at least get the building erected and dried in, with all the windows and everything in place, and then reevaluate where we are at that point financially, if we can continue to take the next steps towards finishing it,” Blevins said.
The pastor has stayed encouraged and continues to uplift his congregation during this challenging time.
“As a church family, we have determined that we will put our trust in God. And that He will bring good out of this somehow. The general response of the community has been good,” Blevins said. “They’ve been really supportive and willing to step in and help. We’ve seen people do that. We’ve received checks from people who said they heard about this and wanted to help.”
The church has established a Go Fund Me page for those interested in making a contribution to help replace the stolen funds.
Officials with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina said they planned to make a $10,000 donation directly to the church.
“It’s just overwhelming,” Blevins said. “It’s so encouraging. It tells us we’re not in this alone. Words can’t express how grateful we are, and how encouraging and affirming this is. This will help our people see that with the convention, we’re all in this together. We are a team.”
“Proverbs 24:10 teaches us, ‘If you falter in a time of trouble, how small is your strength,’” Blevins said. “So while the loss is great and the task large, through the grace of God and the kindness of so many, we will overcome and emerge stronger.”