The Ark got moved around the bad guys stole it for a while . David was bringing it home.
Some time later 50s (I was 11o 12) a model of the ark to scale was in the church... the gold was not real nor the fabrics but the colours were ! it was cool even had the court yard. !
Yes the ark of the covenant was captured, and it was to the Philistines' own disadvantage. So they had it brought by their milking cows to a village of Israelites, and it was taken to stay for years and years at another Israelite site, and David was rightfully having it brought to Jerusalem, where the requirements from the time of Moses could be met, so before there was a temple built for it, the coverings and court for it would be provided for it if David and the priests were seeking to do as required.
It is really nice that you were getting to see a replication of that at church!