PORTLAND, Ore -- Thieves have targeted another local seed church, stealing expensive equipment out of storage trailers, in what's becoming a frequent crime.
Seed churches, which oftentimes cannot yet afford their own houses of worship, instead meet inside local schools or other places. Any valuables the congregation has collected - like sound or music equipment - is stored in trailers during the week.
And crooks have taken notice.
The Agape Church of Christ took to old-fashioned music-making after thieves stole all their amplifiers and equipment from a storage trailer.
"They opened up the trailer - all the electronic stuff, sound equpment, everything, laptop projector - all of our power stuff was gone," one church member said.
Agape's congregation meets at Lincoln High School's cafeteria each week. Two years ago, thieves stole stole their storage trailer, which was later found during a meth lab bust stripped of all electronics.
So Agape started paying for secured trailer parking, thinking that a secured facility, with storage, would be worth the rent.
"It seemed relatively safe that way," said Pastor Ron Clark.
Turns out it wasn't safe enough, though, for another seed church in Vancouver.
"One of our fellow church plants up there had their trailer broken into last week as well ... we know this is a common issue," Clark added.
Church leaders would not speculate on who was responsible.
"I'm thinking there are people who see utility trailers and figure there's a lot of valuable stuff in them and break into them," Clark said.
Agape churches work with high-risk populations of the community, including those struggling against drug addiction. Losing nearly $10,000 in equipment was a big hit to this church, which also works with prostitutes and transients.
Even so, Agape's congregation hasn't lost faith - they still sound great, in fact, even without equipment.
"I'm leaning on the everlasting arm," one of the faithful said.
Detectives were looking on Craigslist and eBay with hopes of finding the sound equipment.
