MOYOCK - The Rev. Vic Ramsey's Sunday sermon on the relationships and emotional ties that turn houses into homes was based on the book of John. A day later, it had the ring of Revelation.

Just before 3 a.m. Monday, lightning struck the pulpit area of Ramsey's Moyock Baptist Church, destroying the house of worship that had served a century of Currituck County residents.

Gone were the brass fixtures - sconces, chandellers and a large cross - given as memorial gifts in almost every decade of the past 100 years. Gone, too, were the church's original entrance doors that had opened to relatively new pew cushions, carpet and woodwork colored pastel green.

So were framed pencil sketches of the church, drawn years ago by 99-year-old Genevieve...

No one was injured, and the cost of damage to the 6,500-square-foot original structure had not been determined by late Monday afternoon, a fire official said. A fire door saved a 3-year-old additiona that housed the fellowship hall, kitchen and preschool classrooms.