Putnam County sheriff’s deputies are on the lookout for a couple who allegedly scammed thousands of dollars from an unsuspecting church.

Larry and Andrea Goodman first visited Boiling Springs Baptist Church in the Baxter community outside Cookeville about three months ago.

They told the pastor, Rev Larry Geren,  they were sleeping in a van, so church members put them up in a hotel until they could get on their feet.

It’s a small congregation with a big heart.

Church members took in the couple as their own, giving them money, items from their food pantry and their love.

“Anybody who comes through our doors, we try to nurture,” Joyce Goodman said. (Joyce is not related to the couple)

Andrea Goodman was even Baptized at the church.

But last week, the seemingly sincere couple in need turned out to be con artists, according to church members.

“I never dreamed they’ll do what they did,” Geren said.

What hurt Geren the most is when he invited the couple into his home and says they made off with nearly $35,000 worth of his wife’s jewelry that she’s collected since 1970.

“She [Andrea Goodman] didn’t just take gold and diamonds. She reached in her chest cavity, and she took a piece of Lucille’s heart,” Geren said.

The jewelry was sentimental. Each year, Geren will buy more in honor of their daughter, who was born in 1975 and only lived 10 minutes.

“It’s not the monetary part of it. It’s seeing my wife break down and cry,” the pastor said.

The couple also allegedly made off with all of the pastor’s carpentry tools, a zero-turn John Deere lawnmower and a 12 x 6 1/2 foot trailer.

The pastor took his fight to find the Cookeville con-artists to Facebook, and the message has been shared more than 107,000 times and has more than 7,300 likes.

“They may hide from me, but they can’t hide from God,” Geren said.

Putnam County sheriff’s officials are investigating, but they believe the couple is long gone.

Church members said despite the couple taking advantage of them, they will continue to help those in need.

The couple faces felony grand larceny warrants out of Putnam County.

Church members said they were driving a 1995 Ford full-size, navy blue work van. The tag number is L58 70S and expires in February 2015.