Fla. Church Gets Donation to Turn Strip Club into Place of Worship

A small Haitian-American congregation in Palm Beach County, Fla., is remodeling a closed strip club and will begin to worship there in a few weeks thanks to the much-needed financial help it received from a megachurch.

A site in Boynton Beach where dancers allegedly engaged in sex and sold drugs will soon be a place of worship after Eglise Assemblee Evangelique de Christ finishes its renovation work. The strip club was closed after a police raid during Halloween in 2009.

While the congregation of about 250 Haitian-Americans bought the place for $600,000 last May, it didn't have sufficient funds to bring the work to completion until the Christ Fellowship megachurch in Palm Beach Gardens donated $12,000.

"Oh, Lord. I cannot explain it," The Palm Beach Post quoted Dumont Pierre, pastor of Eglise Assemblee, as saying. "For us, we consider this as a miracle." The largest check the church had received was for $250 from a local soft-drink distributor.

Pierre's congregation was earlier worshipping at a rented church building in Delray Beach, but it could not afford to pay $2,000 each month. The congregation contributed the money for the new site and its renovation but it still needed more to meet the requirements by city authorities.

Members have repainted the walls, pulled out the dancing poles and removed the old carpet that was still stinking of alcohol. "The place was very, very ugly," Pierre said. "As long as this place is in better use now, to help the community, to help young people – that will be enough." To read more, click here.