Small church near Inola vandalized

A church break-in has left a Rogers County church building in a mess. The Gregory Baptist Church near Inola was burglarized and vandalized this week. <br/><br/>News on 6 reporter Emory Bryan updates

Friday, June 11th 2004, 2:33 pm

By: News On 6

A church break-in has left a Rogers County church building in a mess. The Gregory Baptist Church near Inola was burglarized and vandalized this week.

News on 6 reporter Emory Bryan updates the cleanup. The church is still in bad shape after a couple of days of cleaning, but it's far from the disaster discovered Wednesday morning. Church member John Underwood: â€œJust rough guess at least $20,000 to $30,000.â€

John Underwood is still adding up the damage and can't believe it's so much. Someone crawled in a window, and trashed every room - and nothing was sacred to them - not even the church Bible. The vandals ripped though the sanctuary and left damage top to bottom. â€œOrgan was upside down the Christian flag and the American flag were town down and tied in knots and hanging from one of the light fixtures.â€

Whoever broke into the church stole almost anything they could sell and broke almost everything else. They left a mess behind - they set off the fire extinguishers and left behind a thick coat of dust.

There's nothing that can't be cleaned or replaced - but it's a hard hit for a small country church. "I know it's hard to some of the old folks who see it like this. We found it Wednesday so a lot of them hadn't been told so they showed Wednesday night and to see the church they've always been at in the state it was in."

Rogers County Sheriffâ€™s deputies are working on the case and on the look out for the stolen equipment.

Church members hope whoever did this is caught so they can't do it again.