A Norfolk church was burned to the ground in a fire, but the pastor did not give up hope and now his congregation has a new home in Portsmouth.
The visions of that fire, which leveled The Church of God and True Holiness on February 10th, are stuck in the mind of Pastor Raymond Worrell.
"I'm trying to get over the fire, I haven't quite gotten over it yet."
The memories of the services held there for decades, gone.
"Ya know, it's like losing a member of the family. You lose a member of the family, you just don't get over it overnight."
But finally, after a year of searching, Pastor Worrell calls a Portsmouth church his place for Sunday worship services.
He purchased it and moved in a month and a half ago.
"We came in and renovated it, that is, on the inside, did some inside work. Did something to the dining area, some new chairs and tables, new furniture."
It hasn't been easy getting to this point.
A couple weeks after the fire, NewsChannel 3 took action to get Pastor Worrell a temporary church at the Norfolk Plaza Hotel.
Our work got him a discounted rate that he could afford.
After several months, he decided to move to another location in Chesapeake, before finally buying the church that he's in today.
The pastor even has his own office that he says resembles the one at his old church in Norfolk.
"Ya know, I'm growing into this place, I haven't fully embraced it 100 percent yet, but I'm growing in to it."
