A South Florida church says thieves broke inside their sanctuary hours before Sunday service and stole thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment.

Dr. Johnny Sanders, the chair of the trustee board at Bethel Apostolic Temple in Miami’s West Little River community, said when the deacons came in Sunday morning to set up for service, they noticed the lights weren’t working. They then noticed many of their essential worship, sound and technology equipment were gone.

“Our mixers, the keyboard for the musician, our cameras similar to the ones you use were gone that we use to stream the service live,” Sanders said. “You certainly feel violated.”

The church says they were forced to cancel service.

Sanders said they checked their surveillance and watched two people break in through a back door and spend almost 30 minutes inside the church grabbing whatever they could get their hands on, before they cut the power.

“They took the console, the sound board, laptops, everything we need to facilitate service,” Sanders said. “It is a huge devastating hit.”

Sanders said Bethel is sharing what happened to them as a cautionary reminder to other churches and faith based organizations.

“Our pastor, Reverend Dr. Carol Nash-Lester, as well as our trustee board ministers and members, want to remind churches to be vigilant and be sure to up your security because we’re living in a different time now,” Sanders said.

He said they can replace the equipment, but their focus will always be on ministry. As for the people who they say broke in, Sanders said they forgive them.

“We prayed for them, and we would let them know this isn’t about equipment that you took; this is about you interrupting service going forward and interrupting people being able to connect with their spiritual faith families and connect with God through these services – never a connection they can’t have with God, but through our worship experience,” Sanders said.

The church filed a report with the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office. NBC6 reached out Tuesday afternoon for information. 

The church is now asking the community for support and donations to replace the stolen equipment. They are sharing their information on the Givelify app under Bethel Apostolic Temple Miami, and their Zelle at adminofc@bethelapostolictemple.org.