CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio (WJW) – The sun shined down brightly as community members gathered for Easter Sunday service outside a Cuyahoga Falls church that was badly damaged by two rounds of recent storms.

As FOX 8 previously reported, strong winds peeled off a section of the roof in a wing of the Pilgrim United Church of Christ. Days later, a second round of storms overwhelmed a tarp covering the breach in the roof.

“It’s really shocking and when you walk in that part of the building, I don’t think anything prepares you for seeing that kind of damage,” Rev. Joy Fenton-Jones told FOX 8 last week. “All of the tiles that are down and the water on the floor.”

The church invited congregations from other local churches to attend the sunrise service, celebrating new beginnings.

Despite the recent challenges, as they sat in lawn chairs on the brisk Sunday morning, attendees sang and came together in prayer.

“Easter is all about hope in the Christian tradition and it’s all about finding new life in the midst of things that seem to be dead,” Rev. Fenton-Jones said last week. “That’s what the story is, that sometimes where we least expect it, life springs up out of a place that looks hopeless or impossible.”

The church is working with its insurance carrier and contractors to plan repairs.