After a break-in at a predominantly black church in Murfreesboro where vandals scrawled racist graffiti, members of the faith community came together to clean the destruction left behind.

Wednesday night when Walnut Grove Missionary Baptist Church would usually host its midweek worship service, people from different religions showed up to scrub away the racist messages left behind by vandals. The four suspects — all teenagers — were arrested Tuesday and Wednesday, according to Murfreesboro police.

How the community pulled together their resources

The cleanup effort was organized in just 90 minutes by Dawn Rhodes after she learned of the vandalism.

"I'm B'hai, so my heart leads more to the ... idea that where people worship, they shouldn't feel uncomfortable or vandalized or taken advantage of," she said.

Dawn Rhodes previously helped with the cleanup at the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro when vandals left behind offensive messages and pork on the door handles of the mosque.

Local business owner Jason Ayers donated his pressure washing services to spruce up the outside of the church.

Multiple faiths help their neighbor

Associate minister Marcus Rhodes felt shocked when he learned his church had been vandalized with racist messages by teenagers, but felt overjoyed at the sight of the local faith community joining forces in a time of need. In attendance were people of the B'hai faith, members of the mosque and several denominations of Christianity.

"A lot of our religion is similar, just practiced differently," Marcus Rhodes said. No matter what is taught, love is at the center of it all, he said.

Members of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro came, immediately drawn to helping the Baptist church in wake of the vandalism, knowing personally the effect of having their place of worship targeted.

Tammy Harmon, a Girl Scout troop leader and member of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro's board, attended with her husband to aid in the cleanup.

"We came out to show our support to the community, just like they did us," Harmon said. The Murfreesboro mosque was vandalized in July 2017.

What's next?

Associate minister Goldy Wade said services should resume Sunday, and the weekly Sunday breakfast starts at 8:30 a.m. Everyone is welcome to attend, he said.

Wade said his phone has been ringing constantly since the news of the vandalism broke, and people have even stopped by the church to offer their help and support personally.

"There are so many good people in this community," Wade said.

Reach Brinley Hineman at bhineman@gannett.com or 615-278-5164 and on Twitter @brinleyhineman.