A woman has been charged with arson after allegedly causing $4 million in fire damage to the building of Prayer City Eagles Chapel International Ministries in Austelle, Georgia. Aries Jordon, 25, has also been charged with terroristic threats for allegedly sending threatening text messages to the pastors of the church prior to setting the building ablaze.
The fire was started on Monday evening at around 9 p.m. in the church’s sanctuary. Eventually, the building’s roof collapsed. The sanctuary is now little more than rubble.
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No injuries were reported, and other parts of the building, including the church’s offices, were saved.
Church leaders told Fox 5 that the church only just recently reopened the building after construction to repair flooding damage from a busted pipe.
Investigators said a plastic container of ignitable liquid was found at the scene. Church leaders told authorities the container did not belong to the church, according to CBS News.
Jordan, who according to church leaders is a former member of Prayer City Eagles Chapel International Ministries, had allegedly sent numerous threatening text messages to church leaders prior to the fire.
Jacky Tamo, the wife of an assistant pastor at the church, shared with Atlanta News First the content of the messages she received.
One of the messages read, “Nomore (sic) Sunday services.” Another text that came almost immediately after said, “That church gone be gone,” followed by, “imma burn that [expletive] up.” Subsequent messages included personal insults. A final text message read, “I will shoot you.”
In a letter to the congregation following the fire, Raphael Grant, senior pastor of the church, wrote “with a heavy heart, but also with hope.”
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“As many of you know, our church building was lost in a devastating fire. It’s hard to see the place [where] we’ve worshiped, celebrated, and grieved together now gone,” wrote Grant. “It’s okay to feel the loss, I do too. But let’s remember: the church isn’t the building. It’s us. The Spirit of God lives in His people, and that can’t be destroyed.”
